Half Human
by Fierio
Summary: The two worlds forever existed on top of eachother, each invisible and insubstantial to the other, connected only at one point... A simple tree. One day, this tree is disturbed, opening a gateway from one world to the other, but it's a one way trip...
1. Chapter 1

All along, the two worlds were right on top of each other, invisible and insubstantial to the other, but connected at a single point. In one of the worlds it was a tree of history, possibly the oldest tree in the world and was cherished by the nearby village. In the other world it was just a tree of no known significance.

One day the tree was disturbed and several travelers fell into the other world, it was on this day that two heroes met for the first time. The day when Naruto met InuYasha. (I'm using the English dubbed InuYasha, because demon sounds cooler than youkai. Naruto will be taken from a year after the current (as of June 30, 2009) manga and changed around a bit.)

I don't own Naruto or InuYasha.

Chapter One: The Girl Who Overcame Time… and the Boy Who Was Just Overcome- **Part 1**

"Shikon no wha-?" asked Kagome Higurashi, a normal Japanese school girl holding a light blue jewel. She wore a bright pink sweatshirt with blue sweats and had long black hair that reflected some of the morning light. Across the room from her sat her rather disgruntled Grandpa, holding a similar, bright pink jewel on a keychain.

"Shikon no _tama_, my girl," he corrected. "The jewel of four souls,"

"You don't actually think those tourists are actually going to buy these dumb key chains, do you?" she asked, holding the ball of fake crystal up to her face.

"That is not just a key chain!" protested the old man wearing a traditional white and blue kimono. "That crystal at the end is a replica of an ancient jewel-" his words ended as he noticed the orange and white cat pawing at the "sacred" artifact in the girls hands. He watched the animal bat at it a few times before clearing his throat obnoxiously.

"As I was saying, that is a replica of an ancient jewel which-" once again the cat interrupted his history lesson, batting at the shiny jewel and stretching so far over Kagome's lap that it fell over, it commenced to lay in the position, either to lazy or stupid to get back up.

"An ancient Jewel!" he said a little more forcefully.

"You do remember it's my birthday tomorrow, right?" asked Kagome, the old man dropped his jewel, looking even more frustrated than usual. He quickly hid that and let out a strange laugh.

"I planned to wait another day, but-"

"So you did get something!" exclaimed the excited Kagome. "Hand it over!"

A few moments later, the eager girl found herself holding onto the foot of a platypus, staring at it with a mixture of disbelief and anger.

"That, my friend, is an authentic mummified hand of a water imp, which-"

"Here Buyo, eat," commanded the girl, handing the platypus foot over to the cat, who gleefully bit into it.

"Uwaaah!" screamed the old man. "That's an antique!" he shouted, falling down trying to grab at the cat, who walked away casually

'replica this, authentic that,' thought the girl as she walked out of the room. 'here, everything's got a story,' she remembered a time when he grandpa had tried to comment on the history of a pickle, which was met by a witty insult against his age.

'A thousand year old sacred tree, the legend of the hidden realm. I've heard these stories all my life, and never believed a word of it!' she thought, but little did she know that was about to change, on the day of her fifteenth birthday…

"I'm leaving" she called into the door of her house, now garbed in the official uniform of her school, a white sweat shirt and a short green skirt. She ran a few paces out the door before seeing her brother messing around in the family shrine.

"You're not supposed to play in there!" she warned, noticing the bowel of food he had.

"It's not me, it's the cat!" he replied.

"Did he go down to the well?" she asked, suddenly motivated when her cat was in danger. The siblings walked into the building together, before crouching down at the edge of the stairs. Even after calling the cat's name he didn't appear, combined with the fact that they had food for him meant something was wrong.

"I don't know where else he could be," complained the boy.

"So go down," suggested Kagome casually.

"Why do I gotta be the one?" he said.

"Because you're the one looking for him," she replied, but in truth she was a little scared of the well. While she didn't believe any of the stories her grandfather told, they did leave a scary image in your mind.

Suddenly there was a tapping sound that came from inside the well, her brother instantly jumped back in fright, but Kagome was too curious at the noise to be scared, plus her logical mind told her it was just the cat. She stood up, realizing that childish fears of the well were silly, it was just an old hole after all. As she reached the bottom of the stairs she realized that the sound was coming _from _the well, not the area around it.

Suddenly another sound startled her, there was a sharp rapping noise from behind and she couldn't help but briefly cry out in fear. However, the furry sensation on her leg revealed the noise as nothing but the cat, who was hiding under the stairs.

"You make fun of me because I'm scared and you're all Bwaah!" half teased half scolded her younger brother.

"Look who's talking mister 'why do I have to be the one to go'!" she retaliated, but he wasn't paying attention. His gaze was fixed on the well behind her, he could have sworn he just saw a flash of light.

"Sis, behind you!" he said, an instant before the top of the well exploded outwards.

"What's going on?!" shouted her brother.

0o0o0o0o0

Sunlight filtered through the trees all around them, creating dancing shadows and strange shapes among the ground. They were deep in the heart of the Earth Country, a long time enemy of the Fire Country.

The branches of the trees were suddenly disturbed by passing blurs, shaking their yellow and red leaves onto the ground. To the untrained eye that's all one would see, but to their expertly honed shinobi senses it was no more than the pace of a solid run. The leader of the group, a man with spiky gold hair wearing an orange cloak adorned with black flames sent a few hand signals back to his following companions. They were nearing their target, he was only a few moments ahead of them.

'I've got you now, Sasuke!' he thought with a determined look on his whiskered face. His following group shared his enthusiasm, they all knew how much this meant to him and they all wanted to play their part in helping.

"He's making a left turn and has stopped, we'll probably have him there!" exclaimed one of the three followers, a girl with grey eyes, long flowing hair, and a pink-tan sweater.

"Great Hinata, don't lose sight of him!" ordered the leader, a grin spreading across his face. They burst through the tree line and out into a clearing, on the far side of it stood their four targets. Sasuke Uchiha, Juugo, Karin, and Suigetsu. The members making up team hawk.

"It's about time you caught up, dobe," muttered the Uchiha, he still wore the outfit he had received from Orochimaru long after the snake sannin's death. The only difference in his appearance from the last few years was the new sword he carried. Naruto broke the other one in their most recent fight, not much could penetrate the defense of nature chakra. It was of the same general build as his last, but had a cross guard in the shape of wings protruding from the hilt

"I'm taking you back, Sasuke teme!" shouted the blond, readying a kunai. The other carried out a dramatic pause for a few seconds.

"That's nostalgic… but," the words trailed off as the Uchiha vanished, moving at his inhuman speeds.

"That trick again," said Naruto before spinning and swinging his kunai in a wide arc. The blackened, wind enhanced blade met with the much longer electrically charged blade of his opponent.

"You never have been one to lose lightly," said Naruto through a grin, shortly before hearing the voice of his old sensei.

"That's enough you two," said Kakashi, who appeared between the two of them in a puff of smoke.

"Naruto's team won, you failed to get the Earth country capital before they caught you, any objections?" said the grey haired ninja with his trademark book in his hands.

"Nope!" replied the blond instantly, it took a second longer, but eventually Sasuke answered.

"None at all," he said, before shooting a heated glance at his rival and comrade Naruto Uzumaki.

Many things had changed in the year since the destruction of Akatsuki and the global peace effort enacted by the village council, which changed quite a bit after the assassination of the fifth-and-a-half hokage, Danzo. The rule in Konoha had to be changed ever so slightly after the events that had lead to a brief period of uncertainty. The first was that the council was completely redone, the corrupt were banned from the meetings, and any who resisted were banished from the village. It was harsh, but to get the peace negotiations between all of the nations started something needed to be done with the power hungry.

Though the council itself had never been stronger, Konoha was still without a Hokage for the time being. Tsunade had been refused the ability to return to her former position as her battle with Pain left her crippled, so the position was left open for a while. In the absence of the Hokage, the council took care of most affairs. There were, however, several nominations for the next hokage, and naturally the blond hero was one of them, however law dictated that he must be at least nineteen before he took that office. So for the two years in between then the race for a temporary hokage was still going on, with Shikamaru unwillingly in the lead.

Not all changes were in the realm of politics, some things happened among the shinobi teams, particularly the return of Sasuke.

He came back only a few weeks after Danzo became hokage, and to his surprise actually gained the support of the village shinobi and even more surprisingly, Naruto, the man who wouldn't disrespect the title "Hokage" if it meant the end of him. To Sasuke this just showed how much of a bastard the newest hokage had to be. With the village shinobi rallied, Sasuke lead the revolt against the war mongering Danzo, avenging his clan and his pride as an Uchiha while freeing the village from Danzo's ways.

To show their gratitude, Team hawk, while compiled of all missing nin, was quickly allowed by the new, slightly less stuck up council to become honorary shinobi of Konoha, which they were happy to accept.

The conflict with Kumogakure and Killerbee sizzled over after explanations were exchanged, though Killerbee's whereabouts were constantly a mystery as the only hints they got were through villages unfortunate enough to have him perform in.

Finally, came the most recent turn of events. A game proposed by Kakashi, who was now a council member, regarding Team Hawk and Naruto. Since both Sasuke and Naruto had the skill to be Jonin level they would go head to head in teams of four through three events. Team Hawk remained unchanged while Naruto put together his squad, appropriately named Team Ramen. Naruto picked only those whom he trusted most, which was actually a fairly large list, but three people stood out among the others. Sakura, Hinata, and Rock Lee.

All three were very close to him, and had saved his life at some point, but it wasn't at all easy convincing their former team leaders to let go of them. Kurenai refused to let Hinata go until she had thought about it for a long time, and even when she decided to leave wouldn't let her go until Naruto won a duel with a shinobi of her choosing.

Gai was _very_ reluctant to let his star pupil leave his team, though the two eventually struck a deal. Lee must be allowed to train with Gai at least once a day excluding time for missions, emergencies, and team exercises.

The only place where he received a break was with Sakura, Kakashi was more than willing to let the kunoichi be with her other teammate. With that, team Kakashi became Sai, Yamato, Kakashi, and another generic ANBU.

From the moment the team was assembled it was threatened with falling apart, Kakashi revealed that unless Team Ramen could beat Team Hawk in at least two of the three "games" The team would be voided and all teammates would go back to their original places.

The first game was more of a rematch on Kakashi's part, for the third time he broke out the ever famous bell exercise. Except, this time it was a race to see which team could retrieve the most bells, an exercise that Team Hawk won after retrieving three of the four bells.

The second game was a normal, one on one combat scenario. The matches were selected randomly and each teammate fought with no support from the others. Hinata was put against Juugo, Sakura against Karin, Naruto against Suigetsu, and Lee against Sasuke. This time Team Ramen dominated. Sakura, Naruto, and Hinata all won their matches while Lee managed to make it a draw against the Uchiha, but only after opening the gate of life.

The final test was the chase, Sasuke's team was given a day head start towards the Earth Country's capital. Relations between the Fire and Earth were still tense, but they were slowly opening up to each other. It was a close call, but in the end Team Ramen caught up to Team Hawk only a few hours away from the capital.

"You all did well," commented Kakashi, giving his eye smile to the group. Naruto was beaming about as large as his mouth could stretch, this game meant a lot for him, because the only way you could lead a named team was to fall under one strict rule. You must be at least Jonin. Though the announcement hadn't been made official, and he had yet to be formally placed in charge of his team the fact still remained.

'I'll be a Jonin when I get back,' the words swam through his mind constantly, each time the phrase ended he felt his grin grow wider.

Sasuke noticed the reaction and knew the "dobe" well enough to know exactly what he was thinking. It wasn't until after Team Hawk saved his life on the mission to capture the Hachibi that he felt a certain emotion return to him, an emotion he thought thoroughly erased after he fought Naruto in the gaze of the statue of his most hated ancestor, Madara. An emotion he could only describe as friendship. He now saw in the perspective of his friend, who had always been the same and opposite. As he looked back on the event he realized how foolish he was in leaving the village and finally why Naruto was always so much stronger than him.

"I-I'm proud of you, Naruto-kun," said Hinata, to break the silence that had ensued, sparking conversation among the group.

"Yosh!" cried Lee. "Naruto's flame of youth truly burns stronger than ever!"

"I really didn't do much," said Naruto, rubbing the back of his head. "I just picked the team, in all any one of you would probably make a better leader,"

"I don't think so," said Sasuke, achieving a bewildered look from all present.

"Did you just _compliment_ Naruto?" asked Sakura, suddenly wondering if the past year had just been a dream. It couldn't be, everyone was still wearing clothes!

"As if," replied Sasuke in a very dull tone, everyone felt there excitement die down, it was a false alarm. "But he does have the qualities that make him the ideal leader of your team. Head strong, stubborn, and arrogant,"

"What did you say, Sasuke-teme?!" growled Naruto, entering a competitive pose.

"You're head strong, stubborn, and arrogant," Sasuke repeated, placing emphasis on the words.

"Look who's talking, Uchiha-hime!" Naruto retaliated, the insult caught everyone off guard, including said "princess".

"H-hime?" muttered Sasuke, his will faltering. Naruto saw the opening and went in for the kill.

"That's right, you're pampered, self centered, and homosexual, all appropriate qualities to make you a princess," replied the blond in a mocking voice.

No one knew how to deal with this situation, it was unheard of. Naruto, the number one hyperactive knuckle head ninja was playing a game of verbal abuse with the prince, now princess, of emo and was winning? Sasuke stood shakily, wobbling from back to forward as if he had just taken a blow to the head.

"Hime… Hime… Hime…" he chanted in monotone, while slowly walking forward.

"I think you went a bit too far," mentioned Sakura, who under any other circumstances would have pummeled him for an insult like that, since her childhood feelings for the Uchiha were beginning to resurface now that he appeared to have a very long, barbed stick removed from his ass.

"He'll be fine," said Naruto. "Won't you Sasuke?!"

"Hime…" replied Sasuke.

0o0o0o0o0

"You didn't have to tie me up you know!" complained Kagome, sitting on a strange fur carpet with her hands tied behind her back. Things for her were getting weirder and weirder, starting with the strange naked centipede woman, to the boy pinned to the sacred tree, and finally the archers who shot at her for touching his funny looking dog ears.

Curiously she looked around, hearing various mutterings from the people, who looked like they were all from the Japanese medieval times. She listened to their muttering for a few more seconds, catching only a few words like "war, kitsune, demon," and the like. She looked up suddenly as she heard a voice above the others.

"Make way for high priestess Kaede!" shouted another man sporting a top-knot, the traditional hairstyle for men a few thousand years ago. Kagome let out a sigh as an old lady, perhaps seventy or eighty years old, walked through the crowd. She carried an old fashioned bow an arrow and sported a funny looking eye patch.

The old hag stood in front of the fur mat, staring at the girl for a short period of time before handing her bow over to the top-knot man on her right. She then commenced throwing a strange powder at the girls face.

"Demon be gone!" she exclaimed, throwing another handful of the powder, just for good measure.

"Hey, hey!" shouted Kagome. "I'm not a demon!"

"Are ye not?" said the old lady, apparently she was also a pirate. "Then why were ye found in the forest of InuYasha?"

"She could be a spy from another village," whispered top-knot man.

"In that case she would be a fool," she said, none to gently. "Who'd invade such a poor village as ours?" as the words left her mouth she noticed something about the girl, she had some very familiar features.

"Let me have a good look at ye," said the pirate, pulling Kagome's face closer to her good eye.

"It's there," she said. "Though I know not why,"

Later that night Kagome sat in a small wooden house, comforted by the warmth of the stew cooking over a fire. The old lady ladled a small amount into a wooden bowl.

'Why is the pot so big if only two people are eating?' wondered Kagome, taking the bowl as she did so. Her thoughts were put aside when she saw the contents of the food, so different from what she had at her house. It was ironic that the first place she got normal food was in the most abnormal of places.

"Looks great," se said. "Real food!"

"Bear us no ill will, child," said the old lady, Kagome guessed this meant 'I'm sorry for what happened earlier' "For now I see that ye mean us no harm, in these times of war no stranger is welcome among us without deep distrust,"

"We really aren't in Tokyo anymore, are we?" asked Kagome.

"To-Ki-O?" she said. "I've never heard of it, is that where your people are from?"

"Umm, ya, um, so I really should get going!" she said awkwardly. 'Though I have no idea how to get back of course'

Kaede remained quiet for a while, remembering back to her sister almost fifty years ago. Suddenly there was a series of loud crashing noises from outside, the old priestess/pirate quickly rose to her feet and towards the door.

"What is going on?" she said, looking out the door of her small hut, Kagome just behind her. They both watched with terrified expressions as the monster ravaged the town, sever men shot arrows at its naked torso, which was in the shape of a woman's body. The monster seemed only to become angrier and used it giant segmented body to crush the men like bugs.

"It's that thing!" exclaimed Kagome, looking up at the figure that had pulled her through the well. Somehow it had grown _much_ larger.

"**Give me the sacred jewel**!" it commanded in a demonic voice, without waiting for a reply it charged toward the two women, who dodged to the side just in time to avoid its attack.

"**I must have it, I must**!" shouted the demon who began twirling around, becoming a strange green and red tornado. It commenced wrecking houses and slaughtering the people in its search for the jewel, though Kagome didn't know what jewel it wanted she did know it was after her.

"Lady Kaede!" called one of the villagers, running up to her side.

"Arrows, spears. Nothing works!" said the man next to him.

"We must lure it to the dry well in the forest of InuYasha," said Kaede urgently.

'The well I came out of!' realized Kagome. "Which way is the forest? Where that light is, right?" without waiting for a reply she ran off, leaving a rather bewildered Kaede behind.

'how is it that she can see what can't be seen in the forest of InuYasha?' wondered Kaede, watching as the girl jumped down into the shallow lake bed.

Kagome was beginning to realize that running of on her own was a very bad idea as the monster steadily caught up with her life or death run.

"Please somebody, help me!" she cried, the only response she received was a monstrous roar from the monster. Briefly she saw a pulse of a strange pink light from the forest, without the proper time to worry about it she kept running, hoping desperately someone would help her.

Taking a sharp left turn she climbed up a hill, beginning to run even faster as she heard the monster call out for the jewel again.

"I already told you, I don't have it!" shouted Kagome, suddenly feeling her feet leave the ground and a jolt of pain through her legs, she flew through the air a few feet before landing in front of the sacred tree.

"Hello, Kikyo," said the tree. Kagome quickly looked up, now trees were talking, but was slightly relieved to see that it wasn't the tree. Not much better that it was the boy who was pinned to it.

"So you're alive?" she asked, getting to her feet.

"Why are you taking so long to kill it, do it like you did me," he said, sarcasm seeping from his voice. "You're looking pretty dumb there, Kikyo, the Kikyo I know wouldn't waste her time,"

"That does it, Kikyo, Kikyo, Kikyo," mocked Kagome. "Whoever that is, it's not me because my name's" suddenly a thought went through her head. 'wasn't I running for my life just a second ago?'

"She's here," said the red clad boy pinned to the tree, shortly before the monster feel from the upper branches of it. It's centipede like body came down and she came close enough for Kagome to stare directly into its lifeless eyes. It prepared to grab at her before two arrows with ropes attached pierced it soft skin, sending a moderate amount of pain through her body.

"Great, men. Now pull!" commanded a villager, the several other men behind him tugged on the ropes, pulling the monster away from the strange girl.

"So I was saved," said Kagome.

"You're pathetic, Kikyo," mocked the boy.

"I'm not Kikyo!" yelled the girl, standing up in a defiant pose and coming face to face with the strange boy. "Whoever that is, I'm not her!"

"And I'm saying you gotta be, otherwise there's' no way you'd smell so-" he stopped talking when his nose twitched suddenly. "you're not her?" he said softly.

"I know, my name is Kagome, Ka-go-me!" she said.

"You're right, Kikyo was cuter," replied the boy. Kagome was about to reply when she felt three arms pull at her waist, quickly she grabbed onto the white locks of hair than hung over the boys shoulder and hung on for dear life.

"Let go of me!" she yelled to the monster.

"Ow, ow, ow! You let go!" he shouted back.

"**Give me the sacred jewel**!" shouted the monster again, seeming to get a reaction from the boy. Suddenly the monster's face started to change, it's teeth grew longer and huge canine fangs appeared in its mouth. It lashed out it's head in an attempt to bite, soon the sacred jewel would be in it's grasp.

Kagome cried out, placing her hand in front of the monster, as if to stop it like that. What she didn't expect was to do just that. She fell to the ground in front of the tree, the three remaining arms of the monster falling shortly after her.

"Hey, I did that before," she said, looking at her hand. "But how'd I do it?" as the words left her mouth her side began to (rather conveniently) glow. The centipede, now only a head with six stubs for arms, attacked with renewed force, its goal just under the woman's skin. Using it's full force it rammed the girl into the air, using one of the fangs in it's mouth to cut open the spot just under Kagome's rib cage.

She watched, as if in slow motion as the bright purple jewel flew out from her side, it was inside her al along. Time sped up and she soon found herself bashed into the floor, landing only centimeters from the jewel.

"Give me the jewel, quick!" said the boy on the tree, but she was to dazed to understand the meaning of the words. The next thing she knew is that she was being pushed against the tree, being pressed awkwardly against the boy.

"**I heard some half demon spawn was after the sacred jewel, it's you, isn't it?**" asked the centipede.

"Half's all I need to kick your scaly butt, any more than that would be a waste of my time!" retaliated the boy, sporting a smirk.

"You talk big, but can you back it up?" asked Kagome suddenly, receiving a confused response from the boy. "Can you or not?"

"**what can he do,**" said the monster, bending low to pick up the jewel. It's tongue extended to the ground and lifted the small jewel into its mouth.

"Don't you dare!" shouted the boy as the monster swallowed the jewel. In a matter of seconds the arms that had fallen to the ground, excluding the one Kagome blasted off earlier, floated up and reattached themselves to its body. The beast shuddered as it's body tore apart, exposing a sickening dark-skinned creature with bright red eyes and huge, gaping mouth.

"**My power is complete!**" it shouted, trembling from the strength it had received, now done with its prey it began to tighten the grip on the tree, crushing the half demon and the girl.

"Can you remove this arrow?" asked the boy.

"I-I don't know," replied Kagome, desperately reaching for the projectile.

"Nae child, once the arrow is removed InuYasha will be free to destroy us all!" shouted Kaede.

"Don't be stupid you old hag, at least with me you have a chance, whereas that things going to eat you!" the logic pouring out of InuYasha's mouth was undeniable, causing Kagome to come to a decision.

"I choose to live!" she shouted, grabbing the arrow and giving a sharp tug, in a flash of pink light the entire thing disappeared without even leaving a wound on InuYasha. He stayed there for a while, without any emotion on his face.

"Um, InuYasha?" said Kagome before the half demon broke out in a grim laugh.

The centipede knew about the half demon in front of her, and knew all to well that he was still powerful enough to destroy her. Quickly she slammed her coiled body against them, to crush InuYasha while he was distracted.

In a blast of yellow energy the centipede's constricting coils blew apart, sending Kagome flying and the half demon flipping through the air, landing behind the main part of the demons body.

"Die, you nasty hag!" shouted InuYasha with yellow energy surrounding his claws. The jewel enhanced demon rushed forward at him, receiving his most powerful attack head on.

"Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" he shouted as the razor sharp claws on his hands sliced the remaining body of the demon in half. Even with the power of the Shikon jewel it was no match for him. He stood heroically as the chunks of demon fell all around them.

"Now I know, he is strong," said Kagome, looking at one of the pieces that fell near her. "Uwaah! It's still moving!" she cried.

"Find the glowing flesh quickly, that's where the jewel will be," said Kaede, Kagome looked around finding it in a small piece of pulsing meat. The old priestess walked over and removed the purple sphere from the demon's body, instantly causing it to turn into ash, after the entire body disappeared she turned and gave the jewel back to Kagome.

"Only ye may posses the jewel," explained Kaede, to quell any question the girl may ask, failing in the attempt.

"But why would a jewel wanted by demons be inside of me?" she asked.

"Exactly," said InuYasha "Humans can't use it, so why bother to keep it. Hand over the jewel right now and I won't have to start sharpening my claws on you!"

"Wh-what?!" exclaimed Kagome. "You mean he's not the hero?"

InuYasha smirked as the small army of village men surrounded him, he ignored them and looked straight at the girl with the jewel.

"I hate having to wait, and I hate the smell of you," said InuYasha, just before charging. Kagome turned around to run but tripped over the bones left behind by the demon, ironically saving her life when InuYasha's claws sliced harmlessly past her head. InuYasha went forward a few more feet before skidding to a halt.

"Want me to scratch your back?" he asked, oddly making the rather humorous comment sound very threatening.

"You really tried to hit me just now!" said Kagome in disbelief.

"Shoot him!" yelled one of the villagers, echoed by the rest of the men shortly after. The half demon sliced the first arrow in half as he turned, then started running towards the villagers. Instead of kill them all outright he cut the trees behind them, causing them to scatter. He landed gracefully on one of the clean cut stumps.

"Somehow I knew that it would eventually come to this," said Kaede, pulling a beaded necklace from within her kimono. She held it in front of her face and began muttering a few words.

"Prepare yourself," warned InuYasha, jumping through the trees towards the girl, she kept on running, replying with what she thought was wit.

"Prepare for what?" she said, he question was answered when she turned her head and just barely dived to the ground on time, or rather was blasted from the ground.

"Now it's mine," said InuYasha triumphantly, not noticing the flying purple beams heading for his neck. They arranged themselves around his neck, forming a necklace of no real significance.

"What the heck are these?" said InuYasha.

"Quickly child, the word of subjugation!" shouted Kaede.

"What word?" asked Kagome, crawling forward to pick up the jewel.

"It matters not, your word has power to hold his spirit!" she replied as Kagome found herself (somehow) falling off a cliff. Of course as she hit the ground the jewel bounced out of her hands and onto the bridge in front of her. To make matters worse InuYasha just jumped through the tree line.

"How can you overpower me if you can't sit up?!" remarked InuYasha, landing in front of the jewel.

'A word to hold his spirit?' she thought. 'But how will I know which one?' suddenly her attention was turned to his ears, the ears of a dog.

"Sit boy!" shouted Kagome, as soon as the words left her mouth the beads on the necklace started to glow and the half demon fell flat on his face. Enlightened by this new power over his she continued to call the words.

"Sit boy… Sit boy!" she said, each time driving InuYasha's face harder into the ground.

"What the heck is this thing?!" yelled InuYasha, trying to remove the beads, but they seemed to stop halfway over his head.

"I'm sorry InuYasha, but even you lack the power to remove them," said Kaede, who just now appeared at the top of the cliff.

"We'll see about that!" challenged the half demon. "I'd come up there and finish you off, if you didn't look half dead already!"

"The word please," said Kaede.

"Sit boy!"

* * *

Alright, I need to say a few things about this first. This first chapter is just an idea I'm throwing out here, and while it's pretty canon so far (as far as InuYasha is concerned) It will be changed up greatly later. More importantly, I want to know if it's worth continuing. Send in your feedback in the form of reviews, if you like the idea of the story then I'll continue it. If you don't it will be removed. So if you do like what it has so far then review.

Second of all, even if the story does take off, I made this chapter just randomly. So I have yet to throw together any sort of plan. What I do have is that it will follow the InuYasha story line at least until InuYasha gets Tetsusaiga (while skipping some of the filler in between) The Naruto characters would come in the next chapter and change things around a bit.

Finally, I'd like to apologize for all of the canon in this chapter. In all, if you've ever watched InuYasha you know everything that is happening so far, the only thing original you got was the four pages of Naruto.


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, so I actually did get a few good reviews, and thanks for your support and also for dealing with the grueling amounts of canon. Unfortunately some of that will go on in this chapter, but I'm going to try to shorten it up a bit in that regard, since the real reason I included all of that in the last chapter was actually filler to get a good chapter length. (Once again, sorry guys.)

Also, this chapter should introduce the first pairing. My mind will not be changed in this regard, but know that my chapters usually won't focus on romance. There will be fluff here and there but I'm focusing mainly on the more actiony-ness of things.

Also, since it's sad that I got like three reviews in my first day of this story I need to mention my other… It's called Life and Legends and is (or is going to be) an epic crossover story including several anime, video games, books, and movies. Check it out under misc. X overs, Anime and Books or just click the link to my profile. Right now it's all OC though, but I plan on adding the cross over part soon.

almost done with this, just hang in there! As much as I hate to do it, pretend here that Hinata admitting her feeling to Naruto in the Pain fight never happened. She still risked her life to save him, but never told him that she loved him.

Finally, a little key for you guys.

0o0o0o0o0 means either switching to the other universe or the next day

_-_-_ means I'm switching point of view or going to a different character.

'' is thinking

"" is talking

Chapter Two: The Girl Who Overcame Time… and the Boy Who Was Just Overcome **Part 2**

A small fire burned brightly in the late hours of night, the group of shinobi had settled in a small clearing and were just enjoyed their time together. So far they decided, rather than hopping through trees and rushing to get home, they'd take it nice and slow, after all the life of a shinobi was slowly becoming less hectic. With all of the peace negotiations going on they were hardly needed any more, being used mainly as a police force now.

"You know," said Sakura with a bit of excitement in her voice. "I couldn't help but notice how close we are to _that_, do you think maybe we could make a stop?

"Close to what?" asked Naruto.

"The Sacred Tree hot springs, of course!" said Sakura. "Don't tell me you've never heard of them!"

"Well, I've heard the name," said Naruto. "But we have a hot spring at home, why would we go out of our way for this one?" to Sakura, this was blasphemy.

"These aren't normal hot springs, Naruto kun," said Hinata. "They are full of water that contains a strange mineral, it stirs up the emotions when inhaled. People have been known to go into states of pure bliss while there,"

"Really, that would be pretty cool!" said Naruto, thinking about the many uses for water that would make you relax. "We should bring some home for Iruka, he has been pretty stressed out lately!"

"That's because the Chunin exams are coming up again, you know how bad those are to run!" explained Kakashi, who was still reading his book.

"Well Hinata does know a bit about the springs, but you left out one small detail," said Sakura, smirking evilly. She just loved to do this to the shy Hyuuga.

"Ano, d-did I?" she said, she hoped that no one else would bring up this topic.

"Yep, you forgot the most amazing feature about the springs. They've been known to cause, infatuation," she said, saying the last words in a slightly seductive manner. "So, do you plan on giving a certain someone a dose of love potion water?"

"N-no! I-I wouldn't do that!" she protested, even though she was thinking about it. "I was just…"

"She wouldn't need to do that anyway," said Naruto. "Hinata wouldn't need a love potion to get someone to like her, she's already awesome," he said, completely oblivious to the fact they were talking about him.

"Yosh, Naruto is right!" said Lee. "I'm sure she could get her admirer, if she'd just ask!" he said, stressing the last few words as if to give a hint. Hinata caught it and began blushing even brighter, her entire face glowing a shade of pink.

"Well, I'm off to bed," said Sasuke. "All this talk about love is making me nauseous," as he said the words both Sakura and Karin fell flat on their faces. God, he loved to do that.

"Well, I'm up for the hot spring idea!" said Kakashi, snapping closed his book. "Any one else!"

"If it has water I'm always in!" said Suigetsu, while sharpening his huge sword.

"It would be nice," added Juugo.

"Yosh, hot springs are the perfect place for endurance training!" shouted Lee, the ever familiar fire glowing in his eyes.

"Well then, it's settled," said Kakashi. "First thing tomorrow we head out for the hot springs.

"Wait, why in the morning?" asked Sakura. "We could go now,"

"Well, we don't want to be traveling far in the dark," said Kakashi, who actually had no idea where the springs were.

"Okay, well then, you can go on your perilous journey tomorrow, I'm sleeping in a bed tonight," she replied, before standing up and walking towards the left. Right in front of them there was a glowing neon sign that said

"Hot Spring this way, Rooms available!" with an arrow pointing towards a large white building only three hundred feet away.

"How'd that get there?" wondered Kakashi.

"C'mon, Hinata let's go, I bet that's better than sleeping on the floor!" said Naruto excitedly, grabbing the Hyuuga by the wrist and running off.

"Wait, Naruto kun!" she shouted.

"Seriously," said Kakashi to Juugo. "When did that get there?"

"You'd have to be blind to miss it…"

0o0o0o0o0

Hinata woke up slowly as the first ray of sunlight came through the window, the beds sure were comfy, as Naruto had said, and she was having difficulty thinking about getting up and leaving them. Between the comfy mattress below her and the giant pillow she was snuggled with.

'Wait, Giant pillow?' she thought, she didn't remember seeing any of those last night. Slowly, she opened her eyes, in the back of her mind she had known it all along. The pillow she was cuddling with was none other than Naruto.

"It's great that you're awake, Hinata," he said. "But could you please let me go?"

Hinata heard his voice echoing through his head, and felt the blood in her face begin to boil. She had never been this close to Naruto, heck she couldn't get much closer, already having her legs wrapped around his body.

"H-Hinata!" cried Naruto's muffled voice. "Hinata I can't… breaf!" He yelled, Hinata realized that as she was noticing what she was doing she had steadily tightened her grip on Naruto, planting his face firmly in her chest.

In one motion, the Hyuuga managed to let go of Naruto, roll across the bed, and fall face first onto the floor

"Owww…" she said, a thin trail of steam floating out of her ears.

_-_-_

In the other rooms people were waking up much more gracefully, Sasuke, rather than pay for a room, fell asleep on the roof of the white building. He wasn't necessarily one for hot springs, and especially not hot springs that would make him fall in love. The one bit of knowledge that he ever gained through Shikamaru was that Women are troublesome.

He sighed and removed his sword from its sheath. He'd have to thank Naruto for breaking his last one, this one was far better,

He swung it around a few times, slowly, before going into a complex series of lunges, slashes, and various other basics. The reason behind the exercise was the equivalent to a morning cup of coffee, even the Uchiha needed something to wake him up in the morning.

After a few minutes of swinging the sword around he felt that he had gotten his blood pumping enough, silently he slid the blade back into its sheath, the motion making surprisingly little noise, and jumped off the roof of the building, landing next to a rather startled employee.

"Don't do that again, Mr. Ninja!" said the boy, dressed in the white outfit of the workers. He looked too young to be working at a place like this. "You really scared me!"

"Sorry," muttered Sasuke before walking away, not actually caring about the kid, more importantly, he'd need to find something to do. While his friends are out enjoying the springs he'd have to find some way to entertain himself.

Sakura was already up and gone, finding peace in the warm water of the springs. They gave off a white steam that contained a beautiful fragrance that she couldn't identify, probably due to the mineral in the water. Everything about the springs was so much better than the ones at Konoha. First of all, in this spring perverts were dealt with accordingly, second the water literally lulled you into a sense of rightfulness, as if you belonged in the springs your whole life, and third was the scenery. It wasn't called Sacred Tree Hot Springs for show, no matter where you went in the maze of holes filled with the beautiful water, you could always see one thing. A large tree grew smack dab in the middle of the ring of springs, it was nestled at the top of a small hill and stood almost like a king of trees. She bet if you looked at it from the air you would see a giant emerald surrounded bay thousands of tiny diamonds.

She let out a deep sigh and sunk deeper into the water, this was the life.

0o0o0o0o0

Kagome walked along one of the dirt paths of the village simply to kill time, things were rather dull now that the whole fiasco with the centipede and InuYasha was over. She did enjoy the ability to send InuYasha crashing to his face, and used it at any time he was being irritable, which there was a lot of.

What she didn't like is the looks of villagers who believed her to be the reincarnation of this "Lady Kikyo" person. Well, she kinda was, but that still didn't mean that she was used to all the praise she was getting. Every time she passed a group of villagers they would bow their heads in respect, the ones that talked called her Kikyo Sama and that was a title that she never expected to be called.

"I gotta get out of here!" she thought, before running off to find InuYasha. Despite how he tried to kill her and all she was actually growing fond of the half demon.

Eventually she found him sitting in the higher branches of a tree over looking the village, but not before every villager insisted on giving her a home grown gift of either fruits or vegetables.

"Where'd you get all that from?" InuYasha asked, eyeing the food Kagome carried in a leather purse.

"The villagers gave it to me, now why don't you come down and help e eat it?" she asked.

"Whatever you're up to, I'm not buying it," said InuYasha, landing crouched next to her.

"Buying what?" she asked, chewing on one of the fruits she was given. It might have been a pear but she couldn't tell.

"Listen, it's fair to say you don't like me, right?" she asked.

"Way more than fair!"

"It's not even me you dislike, it's this Kikyo person," she said. "So why don't we call a truce,"

"Ha, what you don't seem to realize is that I'm just after the jewel, you're just trying to lure me into a false sense of security!" shouted InuYasha angrily.

"Funny, because all I have to do to make you obey is say the word, sit,"

0o0o0o0o0

'I've been here two days now,' thought Kagome on the next day, never before did she think that she could actually miss he dysfunctional family, but now that she was in an entirely different century she suddenly felt very homesick. There was only one way that she might be able to get back, and that was through the well she came from.

"Kagome!" called Kaede. "Kagome?!"

"We couldn't find her anywhere, lady Kaede!" said a villager. Kaede thought they had talked about this, there will be people and demons after the jewel, they must not have spoken nearly enough.

InuYasha heard this through the trees and felt his anger begin to rise, there was no way this girl was _that_ stupid, was there? Something told him that she was.

'Dammit,' he thought. 'Now I have to go and track her down before she gets the jewel stolen!' he jumped of the roof of the building, first of all he'd need to find her scent. That wouldn't be too hard since she smelled almost exactly like Kikyo, a scent he had memorized.

He found her trail soon, it wasn't all that difficult. It started off in the direction of the tree he was pinned to, and then turned to the direction of the dry well. Quickly the scent was joined by a few others, men, and judging by the stench probably bandits. That wasn't good.

"Stupid girl," he said, doubling the speed of his run, he didn't have to go very far to notice the small building. The scent of the men and Kagome ended there.

"Found ya," he said, charging at one of the flimsy concrete walls. It crumbled around with ease and was just barely in time to stop the stroke of a sword from removing the girl's head.

He made short work of the seven foot tall bandit, taking him out with three quick hits, and then came the most important part.

"Where is it, is the jewel safe?!" he asked.

"Um, Jewel?" said Kagome, a rather stupid look on her face. He didn't have the time to yell at her any more, the bandit, who by all rights should be dead, was slowly getting to its feet.

"Ugh, what is that stench?" said InuYasha as the man rose to his feet. It was like the smell of rotting flesh. His question was answered as the man's armor came undone, revealing a hole where his heart used to be. Inside was one of those stupid carrion crows.

"They don't fight when there are corpses around," said InuYasha. "But they're not that tough, just hella nasty!" he charged at the bird, stabbing his claws into the dead man's chest (lol) but the bird had cleverly build a bolt hole on the other side. It took off, cawing as it rose.

"It's getting away! After it!" shouted Kagome.

"In case you haven't noticed, the world is full of monsters. Should I go after them all?" asked InuYasha. "in the mean time, where's the jewe" InuYasha stopped talking as the carrion crow took the jewel in its mouth and fled.

"That crow is getting away with the jewel!" shouted InuYasha.

"Well go after it!" replied Kagome, though he didn't need to be ordered. Grabbing Kagome by the wrist he yanked her out of the house, which crumbled behind them. He was about to run after the bird when he noticed something, a human bow and several arrows placed conveniently for their use.

"What are you waiting for, shoot it!" shouted InuYasha as they jumped from tree to tree.

"But I've never used a bow in my life!" protested Kagome

"Carrion crows live of off eating human flesh, if you think that's bad wait until it swallows the jewel!" replied InuYasha, just as he finished the bird did just that.

"Fine I'll try!" she said, pulling the bow back as far as she could, which wasn't quite full draw.

"Kikyo was a master archer, take it out in one shot!"

"I'm not Kikyo!" shouted Kagome. 'But, still, Kikyo give me your strength,' placing all of her determination, will and strength into the bow she pulled back on the string, aimed, and fired the arrow. It went up perfectly straight, looked like it was going to hit, then fell harmlessly down to earth. She tried it again, receiving the same result two or three times. Frustrated, InuYasha kicked her off his back.

"I don't care what the old lady says, you are not Kikyo!" he shouted before running after the bird on his own

Despite how powerful he was, catching a flying target proved hard, even for InuYasha. He nearly got the crow sever times, and once came so close that it had to abort its plans to catch an unsuspecting child (notice the difference here?) Kagome, despite being human, was actually keeping up fairly well. Taking short cuts that if he would have taken might have already gotten the jewel back.

"Stupid bird!" shouted InuYasha, jumping from a tree to attack it as it flew over a river. He succeeded in hitting its wing, sending it out of control. It would be able to heal, but not for a while, he had scored a very good hit. What he didn't expect was for the bird to be able to glide its way into the forest, heading straight for the tree he was pinned to.

"Dammit, I was just over there!" yelled InuYasha as he followed it.

"Wait for me!" shouted Kagome.

0o0o0o0o0

Naruto was just wandering, for no reason in general but just to wander. The hot springs were amazing, and he had relaxed in one for a few hours before reluctantly getting out. He could understand why this place was so special now, but now his soak was over and he walked around in the cool evening air with his hair still wet.

Naruto didn't know if it was the effects of the hot spring or just the thinking he'd been doing lately but he was suddenly aware of just how much he had grown. He compared himself to a few years ago, on the day that he became a genin. The loud mouthed knucklehead who would pummel anyone who dared push around his friends, really not much different than now except in the level of maturity.

He looked at his reflection in the clear, steaming waters. His orange coat that looked so much like what his father wore, and the orange Chunin vest he wore under that. The only thing he wore that wasn't orange now was his pants, they were now completely black.

He sighed, possibly for the fourth time and continued to walk, eventually finding himself at the base of the tree. It was called the sacred tree, but really it was just a nifty looking figurehead for the hot spring. At least that's what he thought.

Naruto suddenly snapped out of his spring induced trance at the sound of a whispering voice. It was coming from the other side of the exceptionally wide tree. He poked his head around and saw the smiling face of Hinata. She looked rather peaceful while cupping the small blue flower in her hands, she used a thin stream of chakra to leave it hovering a few inches above her palm.

He noticed her hair was wet, so she must have still been under the effects of the spring. He wasn't quite sure if he still was or not, it was a lot like being drunk, except he could think perfectly clear, if not better than before, and didn't lose his balance as he walked. Just when you thought that the spring's effects had worn off, you got the sudden urge to do something you usually wouldn't do, which was exactly what happened.

"Hey, Hinata," said Naruto softly, so as not to startle her. She heard the voice and looked up at him, a little surprised to see him, but not startled.

"Naruto kun," she said softly, letting a blush get to her cheeks, and for maybe the first time Naruto realized that it wasn't a fever.

"Mind if I sit with you?" asked Naruto, Hinata quickly scooted over, to make room for the blond.

"So, what are you doing here?" he asked, aware that she was staring at him,

"I came to watch the sunset, it was an urge I got after leaving the springs. I guess I'm still under the effects of them," She said, with her usual shyness gone. "And you?"

"Well," said Naruto. "I was just wandering around until I came here, then I heard you whispering something and decided to sit with you," he replied.

Sasuke almost laughed from his spot in the higher branches of the tree, being the only "sober" person around he was the only one who understood how strangely they were acting. He let them go on without interruption, just to see what kind of stupid things they'd do. Plus if Naruto did something really stupid he'd have some payback for the "Hime" thing.

"The sunset here is beautiful," said Naruto, watching the yellow-orange orb slowly dip in the sky. From the top of the hill they could see all around and over the trees in the forest, the ocean of trees spread out for miles until they couldn't see any further while the sun set the tips of the farthest trees afire with its orange light. They watched in silence for a few more minutes.

"Naruto kun," said Hinata, resting her head on his shoulders. "There's something I've always wanted to tell you,"

0o0o0o0o0

"Damn, it's getting stronger," stated InuYasha, staring at the thrashing beak of the now twenty foot long carrion crow. So far it hadn't tried to fly away, he guessed that was because it wanted revenge. It let out a monstrous croak that could have been mistaken for a roar and charged at the half demon, using its powerful legs to clear the distance in seconds. With inhuman agility InuYasha managed to leap over its head at the last second, causing the crow to run into the tree behind him.

"Shoot it, now!" yelled InuYasha, but Kagome didn't have to be told, she knew this was the only chance she'd get.

"Hit the mark!" she yelled, releasing the bow string, the arrow whizzed through the distance instantly and punctured the demon in one of its eyes. It croaked in pain as green and purple fluids oozed from the wound.

"Now it's my turn," said InuYasha. "Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" the yellow energy claws slashed at the bird, penetrating deep into its hide, sending it's purple blood flying al over the place, but failing to cut all the way through.

'My Iron Reaver is doing less damage, this is going to end badly if we can't finish it soon,' thought InuYasha, dodging the blade-like wind the demon sent hurling towards him. He scratched at the under side of the wing, tearing through the weak skin.

"If only the rest was that easy!" he shouted, dodging the creatures stabbing beak and kicking at its neck, sending the giant toppling sideways.

"Kagome, where is the jewel?" asked InuYasha, while pounding on the bird to keep it down. She instantly tried to focus, at first not seeing the jewel anywhere, until she noticed a faint glow in the bird's breast.

"It looks like it's in its heart!" she yelled.

"Great, it had to be in the most armored place!" yelled InuYasha, using his claws to tear open the scaly armor that resisted so well to his attacks.

"Dammit, my claws aren't strong enough!" he shouted, only managing to create small cuts in it's feathers. "Unless your arrows can get through we won't be able to beat it!" yelled InuYasha, before jumping out of the monsters reach.

"I'll try!" responded Kagome, pulling the bow back to full draw.

'C'mon, If I really am Kikyo's reincarnation I should be able to do this!' she thought, feeling the hand holding the bow begin to wobble. 'no, I need to calm down, I can do this… I can do this,'

"What are you waiting for?!" shouted InuYasha, grabbing the birds beak as it tried to close in on him, holding the mouth open.

"Fire!" shouted Kagome, releasing the arrow. It flew straight for the birds chest, a light blue aura surrounding it as it went. 'This is going to work!' thought Kagome.

The bird, however, learned its lesson when the last arrow hit its eye. There was no way it was going to let another one of those pointy stick pierce its body. It gave a fearsome croak before batting the arrow away with its wing, sending it completely off course.

"Wha- It blocked it?!" shouted Kagome, sporting a terrified expression.

"You idio-" InuYasha's insult stopped short as he hear a strange sound, an explosion. Kagome's arrow, which had been deflected by the bird, flew to the right and impeded itself in the sacred tree, which was now glowing with a strange white light.

0o0o0o0o0

Naruto felt strange all of a sudden it was that feeling you'd get in your gut when you were falling, Hinata stopped talking, she must have felt it too.

"What's happening?" she said, quickly getting to her feet. The ground around them had started to glow, Naruto quickly shot to his feet, just to hit his head on an arrow in the tree.

'How'd that get there?' he wondered, staring at the wooden shaft with grey and black feathers.

"Everyone get down!" cried Sasuke's voice, and then everything went white. The feeling of falling got worse and worse, until Naruto's stomach was threatening to leap out of his mouth.

Suddenly, the feeling went away replaced by the feeling of ground beneath his feet. It took a few more seconds, but eventually the glowing died down. The first thing they saw was a giant three eyed crow… they were surprised.

"WHAT THE _HELL _IS THAT?!" yelled Naruto, pointing a finger at the strange bird, as if the others didn't already see it. However, Sasuke, who had gone through extensive reflex training with Orochimaru, saw the thing and his body did the first thing that came natural to it, kill.

Not wasting any time he jumped down from the tree, drawing his sword as he fell. He noticed to other figures nearby, one was a woman and the other was a man, but they weren't the threat.

The crow, at first, was shocked at this new development. However, it's one track mind instantly kicked in and it turned to face this new challenger. It could tell just by the way it looked that it was a human, and a demon like it had no reason to fear such low creatures.

"Chidori!" shouted Sasuke, ignoring the hand signs, the lightning chakra quickly filled the blade, making it an unstoppable force. The demon opened it's mouth and roared, giving Sasuke the perfect place to attack. His swords cut along the mouth, slicing its head in half from the mouth. In one quick movement he flicked the purple blood off the steel and sheathed it, all in the moment before its head hit the ground.

_-_-_

Kagome was still having a tough time comprehending what happened, but knew one thing outright, this guy was strong! Suddenly she was snapped out of her trance by the shuddering of the crow's corps.

"It has a jewel in its heart!" shouted Kagome. "It will revive until you take out the jewel!"

Sasuke didn't seem to comprehend the message, he had been acting out of instinct earlier and just now started to wonder what was going on. In this time the crow decided that it would be best to cut its losses, its head flew off the ground and reattached itself to the body. It gave off one last croak before flying off.

"Dammit, you're not getting away!" shouted InuYasha, jumping after it. "Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" InuYasha's claws came inches from hitting the bird in its wing, but in one final attempt to escape it moved to the side, causing the half demon to only get one of its toes. The appending hit the ground shortly before InuYasha did, and he wasn't to happy.

"Dammit, it's getting away with the jewel!" he shouted, watching the bird get farther away. Using his tacticians mind, Sasuke looked at the bird, looked at the toe, and then looked at the girl's bow and arrow. Then he was struck with an idea, remembering how the bird's head reattached itself.

"Tie the toe to an arrow!" he yelled, throwing the severed piece of flesh at her. As soon as she caught it she realized what he was thinking. Quickly, she removed the rope strap on the quiver, using it to tie the demon's limb to the arrow. Due to its monstrous size the toe was almost as large as the arrow itself.

"Die! She yelled, firing the arrow at the ever shrinking figure of the bird. She just hoped that there wasn't too much distance between them. The arrow whizzed off, until she couldn't see it any more.

"Did it hit?" asked InuYasha, anxiously.

"I don't know," said Kagome, watching the silhouette of the crow, suddenly its body made a strange jerking motion, they arrow had hit.

"Al right!" she shouted, shortly before noticing a bright pink light appear in the sky.

"What's that?" said Naruto and InuYasha simultaneously.

Then, the Shikon no Tama, jewel of Four Souls, broke apart. Sending six different pieces scattering in beams of light.

* * *

Ha, you didn't actually expect me to have Naruto and InuYasha search for like, five hundred tiny shards, did you? No, six will be enough for me.

Also, this chapter is a special treat. Don't expect chapters to be uploaded every day, I busted my ass and worked hella long to make this chapter the day after the first. It's for being such good people and sending such positive reviews, along with the several people who added this to their favorites and alert list. But, because I did it so quickly, there wasn't much time to check for errors and other things like that. If you see any (major) problems please tell me about them!

As I said, check out my other story as well. Usually I wouldn't advertise my stuff, but that one is in a very odd category. Anime/Book X overs doesn't get many views. So, if you're a complete Otaku like me and know a lot of anime check out that story, as I said it's going to be a huge cross over.

Finally, thanks for showing support so quickly, literally within the first hour of being on fanfiction I got my first review. And a good one nonetheless, that's always a cherished thing among starting authors. (and the email alert shall be saved for years to come)


	3. Chapter 3: Becoming a Half Demon

Hello once again my wonderful readers and thanks for the great support you've given me! Here is where you will see the story line go my way, meaning a lot of things will be left out and some new things added in. Also, since Kagome doesn't have any of the six Shikon shards, the evil hair lady won't appear. (I hated that episode)

Once again, thanks for your support and enjoy this chapter.

Chapter Three: Becoming a Half Demon

"I don't get it," said Naruto, scratching the back of his head in confusion.

"Really, I explained it the best I could," replied Kagome, giving a similar reaction.

"Well, there's not really much to get," said Sasuke with his chin rested on his hands, meaning that he was deep in thought. "The tree must have been tied to both of our worlds, when Kagome's arrow hit it a 'barrier' if you will was broken. Bringing everything close to the tree into this world," he said, remaining calm despite how troubled he was.

"How are we going to get home?" asked Hinata, receiving sympathetic looks from the people around the room.

"I can't tell ye that I know," said Kaede. "However, I believe that it's fate that ye be brought together here. After all, InuYasha and Kagome might never have survived, if ye hadn't shown up,"

"I was doing just fine, you old hag!" argued InuYasha. "I had everything under control, and besides, it's his fault the Shikon jewel was broken. If he hadn't had dropped in Kagome would never have shot it,"

"What happened, happened," snapped Kaede. "Complaining over who's at fault will never get the jewel back, but swift action might!" all eyes turned to her to see what she had in mind.

"According to ye, there were only six pieces that came from the jewel, correct?" asked Kaede. "If this be the case, then any creature that acquires a shard will achieve roughly a sixth of the jewel's power. Kagome, ye should take InuYasha with ye and go look for the jewel pieces. While I see what I can do for getting our travelers back home,"

"Wait, no way! I'm not going with her!" protested InuYasha. "I'll look for the shards myself!"

"And how, daresay, will ye find the shards, if only Kagome can feel their aura?"

"Umm, well… Gah, Dammit!" cursed InuYasha, slamming his fist into the floor, breaking through the hard wood. "Fine, I'll go with her, but when I get the jewel back don't expect me to be friendly!"

"Oh, really?" said Kagome. "Well in that case I'll just have to train you. Sit boy!"

The group of shinobi couldn't help but smirk, even if it was slightly forced. They didn't quite know if it was funny or sad whenever Kagome did that to the half demon.

"Well, in that case ye should leave tomorrow, the sooner ye get the shards the less likely they will be found by someone else," said Kaede, then turning her attention to the strange newcomers.

"As for ye, I can try to send ye back home the same way you came here. And shoot the tree like Kagome did, if that be ye wish," she said, knowing it would be wrong to drag them any further into this conflict. Hinata was about to answer when she heard Naruto protest.

"No," he said, looking as if he were in a lot of physical pain. "What InuYasha said earlier is right, if we hadn't come here then the jewel would have never been broken. The least we can do is stay and help," he said, but slightly faltering through the words.

"Are you okay, Naruto kun?" asked Hinata.

"My head hurts a bit, but I'll be fine," replied the blond. "More importantly, I want to help these people,"

"Are you crazy, dobe?" retaliated Sasuke. "We have friends and team members waiting for us, they're probably worried sick already! You've never been the one to abandon your friends!"

"Right now they don't need our help," said Naruto. "The world is entering a state of peace, if our friends were in danger I would go without hesitation, but look at this place!" he said, not to mean any offence.

"This world is suffering, slowly being destroyed because of violence and hate. You heard the grandma's story, this place has been at war constantly for almost fifty years. We might be able to help," he said slowly, holding his hand to his head. Sasuke was about to argue, but couldn't find a better point.

"Ano- um, Sasuke?" said Hinata, trying hard not to make him angrier. "When we came to this world it was due to a disturbance on this side, to go back the same our friends would need to do the same thing as Kagome, and chances of them figuring that out are…"

"So, you're stuck here," said InuYasha, none to nicely, surprisingly Naruto actually smirked at it.

"Generally, ya," he said. "Just another reason we should head with y- Argh!" he cried, clenching his hair in pain.

"Wh-what's wrong with him?" asked Kagome, as the blond shuddered in pain.

"It, It's him…"said Naruto through clenched teeth. "K-Kyuubi is trying something funny, AAAH!" Naruto beat his hands against the ground, causing the floor to shake with his strength.

"What demonic aura!" said Kaede, cowering from the blond, who just a moment ago was fine, now he looked like all hell were going to break loose from him. She wasn't to far off, having the Kyuubi loose in the world would be potentially catastrophic.

**"Sasuke!" **shouted Naruto, pleadingly looking at his comrade with blood red eyes.

"Wh- Is he a demon?" said InuYasha, backing away, actually feeling a small shred of fear. Sasuke, however looked at the blond without faltering, he knew what was being asked of him. In one quick movement he sent a slightly electrified fist into the back of Naruto's neck, instantly knocking him out cold. The blond fell over forward while the Kyuubi's chakra receded.

"Naruto kun!" shouted Hinata, but quickly realized that he was only unconscious.

"What the hell was that?!" asked InuYasha, grabbing Sasuke by the shoulders. He maintained his usual calm demeanor and started with a story.

"Seventeen years ago, our village was attacked…"

_-_-_

Naruto found himself walking within the strange, concrete water land of his mindscape. He knew after Sasuke knocked him out that he would end up here, but there was something different about it, the walls were covered in a strange orange slime that dripped from the ceiling, dying the water on the ground orange wherever it fell.

"What's going on here, this has never happened before!" said Naruto, he figured he'd find the answer in the form of an oversized demon tenant. Using his power over his mind he shot through hallways, twisting and turning until he came to one corridor in particular. The Kyuubi cage.

**"Naruto, what are you doing to me?!" **roared the Kyuubi through the iron bars of its cell.

"I should be asking you the same question, now drop the act and tell me what you're doing!" shouted Naruto back at it.

**"I'm not doing anything!" **it shouted. **"My chakra being forced to merge with yours, you can be the only one behind it!" **

"Doesn't that happen any time I use your power?" said Naruto, still not convinced by the giant fox's act.

**"Stupid brat, our chakra never mixes! When you use my power you use my chakra! Something is forcing our chakra to fuse and I refuse to become the puppet of some human!"**

"There's nothing I can do about that! I don't even know why this is happening!" shouted Naruto back, beginning to buy into the story.

**"Stupid human, It's this world!" **replied the Kyuubi.** "This world is messing with the seal! Get me out of this world!"**

"I can't, we're stuck here until we find another way home, you know as well as I do that we can't get back the way we came!"

**"Get me… OUT!!!"** roared the Kyuubi, sending a blast of chakra surging through the concrete halls. Naruto found himself being pushed back with the chakra, sending him back the way he came. Suddenly, everything was black.

0o0o0o0o0

_"What happened to him,"_ said a quiet voice, it sounded familiar, but he couldn't pin it down.

_"I-I don't know, the Kyuubi's chakra has never done this to Naruto kun before!" _that was definitely Hinata.

_"I would bet that it's this world, the laws of nature are most likely different here, that's probably forcing a change in the seal," _said a very cool and collected voice, it was probably right too, meaning that it must be Sasuke talking.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, grateful that he didn't wake up staring at the blinding white ceiling of the Konoha hospital, he hated that ceiling. However, that also meant that he wasn't dreaming the past day. Silently he rose from the small bed he was in and took a look around, he was in a separate room of Kaede's house, and there was a closed door and a few shadows behind it, probably where the voices were coming from.

Then he realized his face felt funny, as if something were missing. He discarded the fact, he must have still been a little sleepy. He smelled the faintest trace of a fire, along with several other scents that hung around the room.

Suddenly, feeling an itch on his head, he reached up of his hands to scratch it, suddenly jumping at the pain that it caused.

"What the heck," he whispered, looking down at his hands. The nails had elongated and formed triangular points; it was a transformation that happened when he used the Kyuubi's chakra. Naturally, if their chakra merged some things like that would happen. He shrugged it off, he'd be able to cut them later.

Then he realized that his head no longer hurt, whatever had happened between him and Kyuubi it was over now, he'd figure out exactly what that was later, right now he was hungry.

Feeling great, he walked over to the door, marveling at how quickly and easily he was able to spring to his feet without using chakra. He pushed open the door to the main room of the house, where there would most likely be a pot of some soup cooking in the middle of the little room.

"Good morning guys!" he said, waving one of his clawed hands. "I'm feeling much better today!" he said, realizing that all eyes were on him, not in the "hello, I'm glad your awake" kinda way. Their expressions said "Whoa, who let this guy into the house?!"

"Oh, the claws," said Naruto, dropping his hand. "I'm sure I can cut those later,"

"It's not the claws, Naruto," said Sasuke, kicking a bucket of water in his direction. "Take a look at your face,"

"Okay, but wh- Oh my god!" shouted Naruto when he looked at his reflection in the bucket, instantly noticing the two, hairy orange appendages growing out of his head, shortly followed by the lack of ears.

"Wha, what happened to my ears?" he asked, wondering how he was still able to hear.

"There on the top of your head, dobe," replied Sasuke, who seemed to be the only one, besides InuYasha, that wasn't completely bewildered. "It's a fitting look for the jinchuuriki of the Demon Fox,"

Suddenly, Naruto realized that the strange "appendages" on his head were actually fox-like ears. They were small, but tapered at the tips where they turned black. Then he started to see the more subtle changes, like the two, tiny fangs he now sported, how the ends of his hair adopted an orange-ish sheen, and how his pupils had formed a slightly longer oval shapes in his eyes.

"Pf, you look like a half demon!" said InuYasha, holding back a laugh.

"But, wha- h-how?" said Naruto, still tripping out over his ears. It wasn't because he was scared of the change, but it was rather… sudden. 'You know, I could actually get used to this,' he thought for a moment, it _was_ a rather fitting look.

"We were hoping you could tell us," said Sasuke. "And you don't have to hold back any details, these people know about the Kyuubi,"

"Why'd you tell them?!" snapped Naruto, bearing his new fangs at the Uchiha. Oh ya, he could get used to this.

"Because, the old lady had a right to know why you nearly blasted her house apart with the Kyuubi's power," he said, still casually. "If I hadn't told them she might have freaked out and had you burned at a stake or something,"

"Weren't they surprised or something?" asked Naruto, he knew that people often didn't take well to finding out that he was the container of the Kyuubi.

"They were, but weren't really in the position to judge, after all they already let one demon into the house," he said, pointing at InuYasha who gave Sasuke a heated glare.

"I should tear you apart for that," he said, but was thoroughly ignored.

"Plus Hinata was nice enough to explain that you were usually the one in control," explained the teme, pointing over to the shy kunoichi who was still looking at Naruto's ears with a funny expression.

"Hinata, do they scare you?" asked Naruto. "I could always wear a hat or something,"

"No, that's okay… Naruto kun," she said softly. "It's just that… They're, they're… _Sooo _Cute!" she squeaked, rushing over to the blond shinobi, placing her hands to the blonds head and began playing around with his ears.

"Awww!" she cooed. "I love foxes, there so cute and fluffy, and look like big plushy toys!"

"Stop Hinata, that tickles!" said Naruto, holding back a laugh.

"Really?" asked Kagome. "Let me try!" and soon both women were busy poking and prodding Naruto's ears, which had become one of the most ticklish spots on his body.

"Hahaha! C-cut it o-out guys! Haha!" shouted Naruto as he thrashed around on the floor. "I can't breath!"

_-_-_

"I need a boat," said Sesshomaru, staring down at the human general. His white and red outfit flapping in the slight breeze, and his pitiless golden eyes burning deep into the man's hear. However, he was a war general, no simple eye trick was going to keep him down.

"You need a boat?" said the man. "Bahaha! Before a battle, and we're to give it?!"

"Yes, you are," said the dog demon.

"I think not!" replied the general, charging the insane man in front of him, but instead of yielding like he expected the other to do he returned the charge, except at speeds no normal human could achieve. Before he even knew what was happening he felt a clawed hand close around his neck, strangling the life out of him.

When Sesshomaru felt the pulse die away he threw the man at one of the many boats docked nearby, shattering it. The rest of the men tensed up, preparing to strike at the demon. Not even he could defeat an army.

"Lord Sesshomaru," came a call from the grass. "Lord Sesshomaru, I regret to inform you that there are no boats," said Jaken, the small green imp. "Uh, unless you count those over there," he said, noticing the several wooden crafts. Hoping that Sesshomaru would forgive him for his ignorance he returned to his master's side.

"Jaken, I leave them to you," said the demon, walking away as the little imp chuckled.

"Heheheh! Feel the power of the staff of two heads!" he cried as fire spewed from one of the heads on his staff. (A/N I like staff of two heads better than the staff of the skulls)

_-_-_

"So, what are you going to do?" asked Kagome to the group of shinobi.

"Well, we have a better chance of getting home going with you two," replied Naruto. "So I guess that's what we'll do,"

"Makes sense, so long as that black haired boy doesn't get on my nerves," said InuYasha while popping his knuckles.

"I'd like to see you try and back that up," said Sasuke, twirling a kunai on his finger by the ring in the handle.

"Any time you're ready!" replied InuYasha, brandishing his claws.

"Oh no you don't," said Kagome. "Sit boy!" she shouted, causing InuYasha's face to smash into the ground. Sasuke just smirked as he watched the half demon slowly rise to his feet.

"If you two are quite done I'd like to get going!" said Kagome sternly, quickly turning her back to the group.

"Hey, who died and made you king?" called InuYasha to her, before turning his back to her.

"Weren't we planning on leaving today?" said Naruto, a huge sweat drop appearing on his head. Of course, just by mentioning their journey he seemed to delay it. Suddenly feeling the urge for fresh air he stood up from his sitting position and walked over to the door/

"Wait No!" cried a voice as Naruto's foot came down, crushing a tiny flea.

"Wait, did that flea just… talk?" said Hinata, looking down at the flattened figure. InuYasha came over to see what all the commotion was about.

"Well, if it isn't Myoga the flea," he said, picking the insect up between his fingers. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"its urgent master InuYasha, Someone is trying to find your father's tomb!" said Myoga quickly.

"His tomb? And why would that be important?" asked the half demon in his usually mocking tone.

"Ah, well… I actually don't know myself," he said sadly. "But that's not the point, before your father died he asked me to take care of his tomb! There must be something important about it!"

"Well, it's not my problem," said InuYasha, flicking the flea away. The shinobi group watched the whole conversation in confusion.

"Wait, Master InuYasha, I beg of you!" said Myoga while jumping to catch up to the white haired half demon. When they said a flea could jump fifty times its height they weren't kidding.

"I told you, it's not my problem!"

"Unfortunately it is! Your brother, Sesshomaru, is after the tomb!" cried the flea, literally crying.

"Ya, so why does that make it any more special?" replied InuYasha.

"That's because it's a matter of your Inheritance!" shouted the bug, jumping up and down angrily.

"Huh, you mean my old man left me something?" asked InuYasha, suddenly curious. "What is it?"

"I'm sorry InuYasha, but I'm not aloud to tell you," said Myoga. "It was your father's wish for you to get it on your own, but I am allowed to tell you one thing,"

"What is it, spit it out," said InuYasha.

"Seeing without being seen, protected yet never known to its protector," said Myoga, reciting the lines he had been given. "They were the only hints given to me by your father, before he died.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?!" said InuYasha angrily, preparing to crush the flea underfoot.

"A lot actually," said Sasuke. "It's a riddle of sorts, probably leading to a map or something,"

"Can you figure it our, Sasuke?" asked Naruto.

"I've pretty much got it worked out already, whoever his father was he had poor skills in the hidden meanings of words," he replied, receiving a glare from InuYasha. "Seeing without being seen, means that it's probably located in someone's eye. Where it would literally see without being seen. The second part is pretty obvious, the person who has it doesn't know about it,"

"But how would you fit anything of value in someone's eye?" asked InuYasha.

"I never said it had to be a map, I simply suggested where it could be," explained Sasuke. "Plus if there are demons larger than that bird we fought it would be easy to fit something as large as a treasure chest in their eye,"

For just a moment, Naruto swore he could see Sasuke's sharingan activate, but after he blinked it was already gone. His face remained as emotionless as ever.

"Perhaps we can find out more on our journey," mentioned Kagome.

"I really don't care any more," said InuYasha. "Whatever it is, I don't need it," with that he began walking off, followed shortly by the confused Kagome.

"You know something about this, don't you?" Naruto asked Sasuke, who gave him his famous blank stare.

"Why would I know anything about it?" he said, with the faintest hint of a twinkle in his eye.

_-_-_

It was beginning to get late and the group still hadn't left to go on their search for the shards. The message was silently passed along that they would wait for a while before setting out, giving everyone ample time to think about things.

"So, Myoga," said Kagome. "You were talking about InuYasha's father earlier, right?"

"That's correct" said the flea. "InuYasha's father was a powerful demon, possibly the most powerful ever. He ruled over the western lands, but unless provoked was a kind being,"

"Wait, so not all demons are bad?" asked Kagome.

"No," said Myoga. "I'm proof of that,"

"Wait, you're a demon?" asked Kagome in bewilderment.

"Why would that surprise you?!" replied the flea angrily.

"It's just that your, well… small," said Kagome, causing Myoga to do a face vault.

"Anyway, back to the story," said Myoga, hoping to forget the incident. "InuYasha's father had a deep love for humans, they were fascinating to him, capable of great acts of kindness and made beautiful works of art. It was only a matter of time before he was smitten by a human, InuYasha's mother,"

At the mention of any sort of mother, InuYasha silently got up and stepped on the insect demon.

"She died a long time ago, so there's no reason to talk about her," he said, before walking out the door.

"What was that all about?" asked Kagome, watching the spot where InuYasha had just left.

"InuYasha has always preferred not to talk about her,"

"You should follow him, Kagome," said Naruto. "I think it would help,"

"Really, how's that?" she asked.

"He seems conflicted, he doesn't know what he's fighting for," replied Naruto. "Fighting for power will only lead to more pain and loss, then eventually hatred, he needs someone to fight for. He'll be stronger than any force if you give him someone to protect," Kagome looked at the blond through new eyes, at first she believed him to just be some mindless killing machine, like how ninja were portrayed, that his playful manner was just a mask. In just one second he proved to be her that he was anything but.

"Thanks Naruto," she said, before running out after the half demon.

"How do you do that?" asked Sasuke. "Just by saying a few words you can get anyone to believe you,"

"It helps to smile,"

_-_-_

"Mother…" whispered InuYasha from his place in a tree, he looked out at the moon longingly. His nose twitched suddenly, catching the scent of Kagome walking towards him. He quickly took his more casual look, closing his eyes and leaning back on the branch.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, however inside he couldn't help but feel glad she came.

"You're so stubborn, now why don't you come down here and talk to me?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"What? No thanks," snorted InuYasha, turning his head the other way.

"Fine, then I'll go to you," she said, grabbing on to one of the lower branches.

"Suit yourself," said InuYasha. "Don't come crying to me if you fall," however she climbed up the tree without incident, reaching the branch he was in relatively quickly, for a human. However she couldn't seem to reach the last step.

"Could you help me out a bit?" asked Kagome, placing one hand out to him. At first he thought about giving a sarcastic response and letting her get down on her own, but decided that she couldn't hurt by being up there.

"Here, grab on," he said, lowering his hand. She took hold and he easily pulled her up.

"Wow, the view from up here's amazing!" she said, looking all around.

"Why?" asked InuYasha. "Why are you constantly following me? it's not like I've been nice to you or anything,"

"That's easy, it's because you're the first friend I made here," replied Kagome. It took InuYasha off guard for a moment, quickly he decided to change the subject.

"Whatever," he said. "Why don't you go back home, you're not stuck here like the others," this time it was Kagome's turn to hesitate.

"Well… I probably could go back the way I came," she said. "But I feel like I should be here. I miss my family but I'll go back when this is over,"

"Heh, now you're beginning to sound like that blond demon-kid," said InuYasha mockingly.

"Well at least _he's_ nice," replied Kagome mockingly.

"You've got me there," said the half demon, shrugging.

"But I can tell that you can be nice to," she said. "I can see it in your eyes, I bet all you need to do is try to like me a bit more,"

"Please, why would I try to like y-" InuYasha stopped as his nose twitched.

"What's wrong," she asked, noticing his sudden silence.

"Get down!" shouted the half demon, tackling Kagome just as a bright green beam of energy sliced through the top part of the tree, causing it to topple over. InuYasha already knew who it was just by the smell, his brother Sesshomaru.

"Kagome, go and hide somewhere, I don't want you to get in my way," he said, grabbing her by the waist and jumping out of the tree.

"No, I'm staying here," she said, standing firmly next to him.

"Pathetic," came the dog demon's voice, somewhere in the distance. "You're just like father, I thought you would have had enough with these humans, but I guess I was wrong,"

"Show yourself, Sesshomaru!" called InuYasha, searching the darkness for his brother's form.

"As you wish, little brother," suddenly the demon appeared on the moon lit path in front of them.

"Wait, did he just call you his little brother?!" asked Kagome, shocked.

"Get out of here, Kagome," he said. "You'll get hurt if you stay around!"

"I have no intention of harming the girl, I came here for one thing, father's tomb," said the white haired demon, readying his claws.

"And why would you think I know where it is?" asked InuYasha, staring down his cold hearted sibling.

"You don't seem to understand," said Sesshomaru. "Seeing without being seen, protected without being known to its protector… you don't know where his tomb is,"

Suddenly InuYasha realized what Sesshomaru was saying, but he kept that to himself.

"Sorry. Pal, I can't help ya!" he shouted, charging in with his claws ready. "Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" he yelled, bringing the yellow claws down in an X formation. The waves of energy shot through the soil and towards the resolute demon.

"Pathetic," he said, stopping the blast with an outstretched hand, making it pass harmlessly to either side.

"Why didn't it work?" said InuYasha sporting a bewildered expression.

"Because you're just a miserable half breed, not fit among the world of demons or humans," stated Sesshomaru, beginning to remind the half demon a lot of Sasuke.

"Shut up! I won't even need half to destroy your sorry butt!" retaliated InuYasha, renewing his charge. Instead of using any special attacks he just swung randomly, being dodged with little effort from Sesshomaru.

"You still fight like a child," he said before grabbing hold of the other's neck. "Now, I'll take what's mine!" Sesshomaru lifted his claws to the half demon's eye, yellow bolts of electricity firing from his claws.

"InuYasha!" cried Kagome, as the red clad half demon cried out in pain.

"Rasengan!" came a voice from the tree line, seconds later Naruto emerged holding a spinning ball of blue energy in his palm.

"Too slow," said Sesshomaru, he already had what he wanted. He moved to the side, causing his body to blur, and Naruto's gut met with his outstretched knee.

"Hm, another half demon?" he said, noticing the orange ears at the top of his head.

"Not quite!" shouted the boy, grabbing hold of Sesshomaru's wrist, clenching down with enough force to send a small amount of pain through his arm. "You're mine now!"

"Rasengan!" called a voice from behind him, Sesshomaru's eyes widened as he realized that it was the same voice as before.

"That's impossible!" he managed to say, shortly before he felt a sudden burning sensation on his back, it had been a long time since anyone had been able to hit him. The force of the blast shot him forward, spiraling into a tree, somehow he managed to keep hold of the black pearl in his hand.

'That's strange,' thought Naruto as he surveyed the results of the attack. 'I thought I put more chakra than that into it,'

"Lord Sesshomaru!" cried a voice from the tree line, and a small green thing came running out, carrying a staff that was easily three times the size of its body.

"I'm fine, Jaken," he said, getting to his feet. He could already feel the minor wounds on his back beginning to heal. The attack had a lot of force to it, but didn't do much but push him. 'Still, that is no normal half demon,'

"You stay out of this!" shouted InuYasha to his rescuer, him and his clone snapped right back.

"I just saved your life, be a little more thankful!" then they cocked their heads to the right. "What's up with your eye?" they asked, seeing that the right one no longer had a pupil.

Sesshomaru took this temporary distraction to take the staff of two heads from Jaken's hands, he dropped the pearl to the ground and placed the butt end of the staff on top of it. Immediately, the face of the old man started to laugh, which caught the attention of the arguing half demons.

'The old man laughs! That means the tomb will open!' though Jaken excitedly, watching as a black rift opened in the air.

"Finally, the Tetsusaiga will be mine,"

* * *

I lied, so sue me… I had this chapter up on the next day when I said it wouldn't be. I actually expected it to take longer, but it just seems to be writing itself. (things will slow down when I go to school on monday, Japanese classes-_-) The only problem I had was with deciding how I should reveal the tomb. I didn't want to make it canon, so I didn't do the whole mommy soul sucker thing, but I wanted to keep it close to the story so I changed a few things around.

First of all, Sesshomaru is smart enough to figure out a riddle that's so haphazard as the one for the pearl, the fact that he didn't get it in the anime is an insult to his intelligence.

Second, I'm making the shinobi a little weaker than they're used to. I'm sorry, but a full powered Rasengan (even the normal one) pwns the backlash wave. I can't have them be that powerful.

Third, and probably the strangest thing I added was Naruto's transformation into a half demon like thing. Technically he's still fully human, but since they've entered a new world the seal was screwed with so the Kyuubi's chakra merged with Naruto's. It's only natural that he'd gain a few, fox like features. (I even debated about giving him a tail, but decided against it.) Ya, Naruto and Shippo are gonna get along just fine ^_^

Please read and review!


	4. Chapter 4: Father's Fang

Hello again! Once again thanks for the feedback, so far I'm surprised that I've received very few bits of criticism. I must be better than I thought! Any one else who submitted their help I'm very thankful and hope that you continue reading! Unfortunately this chapter will be substantially shorter than the others, but it was rather difficult to write so I can't say I'm not glad it's finished.

Second, I want to deal with something that I know will come up if I don't fix it now.

I know in the manga Zetsu says that Naruto is most likely stronger than Sasuke now, but I want to point out that counts only when Naruto is in sage mode. In a normal situation, Sasuke is just as strong if not stronger.

And finally, since I forgot this in the last few chapters… I don't own Naruto or InuYasha, if I did this would have happened in the actual series.

(By the way) if any of you know the name of the attack when Sesshomaru uses green energy from his claws as a whip please let me know. I believe it was named, but I can't seem to recall it.

Chapter Four: Father's Fang.

Sesshomaru stared down at his burnt hand, he stood among a floor littered with skulls in the gigantic skeleton of his father. He felt anger rise within him when he realized that there was a protective barrier around the dull katana that seemed to reject his touch.

"It's not stuck, is it?" asked Jaken, very disturbed by this change of events.

"Father has done his work well," said Sesshomaru, InuYasha and the other half demon were quickly approaching. It would be no problem to defeat them, but he would not leave without the sword.

"Sesshomaru!" came the yell, his brother could never understand the concept of stealth. "We're not finished yet!" without effort the demon moved to the side, avoiding the other's claws entirely.

"Now where'd he go?" said InuYasha, looking around for him.

"Be more respectful, it's our father's tomb," said Sesshomaru, hanging sideways on the wall. Suddenly a strange scent entered his nose, alerting him to the presence of the other half demon, just behind him.

"Not again!" he yelled, turning and lashing out at the blond, who was forced to duck under the swing. However, since he was still unused to his new strength he overdid it a bit, causing him to fall backwards onto the ground.

"Stay out of this!" shouted InuYasha. "He's my fight!"

"Don't be stupid!" retaliated Naruto. "He's too strong for you to beat on your own!" and that was going to end the discussion as the blond shinobi placed his hands into his trademark seal.

_"Tajuu, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"_ he shouted, instantly there was a huge blast of smoke, blocking out all sight in the room.

When the smoke cleared even Sesshomaru sported a look of mild surprise, instead of one there were now at least thirty of the blond half demons. Naruto looked around him, as he had expected there were fewer than he had intended to create.

'So, my ninjutsu is weakened in this world,' he thought, that was going to make things much harder.

"Attack!" screamed all of the clones at once, before rushing at the demon. Sesshomaru stood still for a while, waiting for the clones to close in, then used his claws to make a green energy whip that sliced through the first ten without any problem. The clones that were hit exploded in a large puff of smoke, creating a smokescreen for the ones in back.

'So, one good hit will destroy the fakes,' realized Sesshomaru, making the attack virtually useless against him. The next wave of clones jumped through the smoke, being met by another wave of green energy. Most were hit while a few managed to dodge under it, getting within range of the demon.

"Take this!" they yelled, throwing their fists randomly at their opponent, who nimbly dodged and countered, seeming to always know where one of the clones would show up.

"Forgetting about something?!" shouted InuYasha from above, quickly, Sesshomaru finished off the last of the clones and leapt into the air, preparing to end the fight with a blast from his poison claws. He noticed his mistake when "InuYasha" placed his fingers in the shape of a cross, the same thing the blond had done to make the clones. Soon after he realized this, the InuYasha disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving behind another one of the orange clad half demons.

_"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" _he shouted, spawning five more copies who all jumped to places against the walls. Sesshomaru looked around, he had fallen directly into this half demon's trap. But he was above these petty things.

The Naruto clones blasted off of the walls using enough force to leave deep cracks in the bones, all aiming outstretched fists towards the white clad demon. However, the strategy had one major flaw, one that Sesshomaru noticed instantly.

To Naruto it was just a white blur where Sesshomaru had been just before, somehow the demon had vanished and each of his clones plowed into each other, all disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Suddenly Naruto heard something from behind, he began to turn his head just as he received a powerful kick from his opponent, sending him hurtling towards the ground. The impact sent a cloud of debris rising, burying Naruto in a mass of skulls.

"Great job my lord!" shouted Jaken. "Allow me to finish him!" he said, aiming the staff's head at the crater. Suddenly, Kagome jumped down from the wall, landing on top of the green imp.

"Oh no you don't!" she yelled. Meanwhile, the shinobi was crawling out of the crater, he was a little buffed up, but not injured.

"That's why I told you to stay back!" shouted InuYasha, preparing his claws.

"Fat chance!" replied the blond. "I'll never give up!"

"Stubborn bastard," muttered the white haired half demon.

"Look who's talking!"

Meanwhile, while the two argued, Kagome's battle with Jaken raged on, and she was pushed to the floor directly next to the golden pedestal that held the Tetsusaiga. Using the handle of the blade as a support she lifted her tired body from the ground, watching as the battle between the others unfolded.

InuYasha charged in, sick of arguing with the blond, and lashed out with his claws. Sesshomaru grabbed hold of the wrist, twisting it until he heard a satisfying snap. His brother cried out in pain as the other half demon launched its attack, though his moves were always direct he did have a way of adding a surprise to them, he would have to keep his mind open more.

Naruto created four clones during his charge, each of them scattered to surround the white haired demon. Unimpressed, Sesshomaru threw InuYasha at one of them, causing it to dispel. The other three came running in, sporting short black knives that looked more balanced for throwing than cutting. Using the green energy from his claws he dispelled these clones, before turning his gaze to the real one who had stayed back to survey the attack.

'He's trying to figure out how to counter my attacks while he suffers no damage,' realized Sesshomaru. 'That clone technique is rather useful,' then he noticed the smirk stretched across the half demon's face.

"Gets them every time," he said, causing Sesshomaru to realize the attack wasn't quite over, he looked around but didn't see any of the clones. That is until the ground beneath his feet exploded, one of the clones, or maybe even the original, shot out in an uppercut. It happened to quickly to avoid, forcing him to guard, using his flexible armor kimono to the fullest advantage. The attack would have been devastating if not for the sudden guard, there was force behind it that no half demon could hope to achieve and possibly rivaling his own stronger hits.

'Where is he getting this strength?' he wondered, before slicing at the clone's stomach, causing it to disappear. As the clone 'died' he noticed a strange movement among the original. Suddenly he seemed more exhausted then before, and his breath came in light gasps. He wasn't at all close to his limit, but the heavier breathing meant that attacks like these expended his energy quickly.

Sesshomaru looked around, he had been too cocky and had underestimated this opponent. Together with InuYasha they were an actual threat, despite how much he hated to admit that half demons were putting up a good fight. He needed to even up the odds a bit, but he wasn't quite ready to reveal his true form. He'd need to kill one of them so he could focus on only one target.

Almost to grant him that wish, InuYasha came charging in, thrashing around with his claws angrily. He was doing a little better than he had managed before, one of his attacks actually penetrating through Sesshomaru's guard. However, the move left him wide open and the demon found ample room to wrap his hand around his brother's neck. Using his speed he slammed the half demon against a wall, sending pieces of bone falling from the ceiling.

"It's time for you to meet my poison claw," said Sesshomaru as his free hand began to glow green, he was about to release it on the other but stopped when he heard a shout.

"InuYasha!" screamed the human female, who had made her way over to the Tetsusaiga. She took a step forward, unknowingly pulling on the blade as she did it. Seemingly without effort it came free.

"Woops, it came out,"

_-_-_

"How could they just disappear like that?" said Sasuke, trailing close behind Hinata who had her Byakugan active.

"I don't know," said Hinata. "I could have found them by now, but my Byakugan is weaker than usual," she too had learned that their chakra wasn't as potent in this world. Sasuke didn't answer, there was no point in distracting the Hyuuga any further.

"Wait," she said. "There's a strange anomaly up ahead, it's like the chakra is being sucked into it," she was willing to bet that was where their comrades went.

"Let's go," said Sasuke, speeding up his run.

_-_-_

Sesshomaru stared with hate filled eyes at the girl, the girl who had been able to remove Tetsusaiga so easily. No doubt it was father's doing.

"Give me the sword," he said, inches away from her face. In his rage he had sent both Naruto and InuYasha flying, it would be a few moments before either fully recovered.

"Do it Kagome!" he shouted. "There's no need for you to get hurt because of this!"

"What, no way!" she replied. "I pulled it out, which means that I'm supposed to have it, right?"

"You should listen to the half breed," stated Sesshomaru. "If you hand it over I'll spare your life,"

"No!"

"Then die," actually, Sesshomaru preferred it this way. He held his hand up to the girls face, she watched with terror as it began to glow green.

"Kagome!" shouted InuYasha, it was amazing for Sesshomaru to see his accursed brother suffer.

"Missing something?" came another voice, Sesshomaru looked around just to see a human on one of the walls. Carrying the very girl he was currently melting.

'What?' he thought, just as the dying girl disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a melting bone.

"Kawarimi no Jutsu," said the black haired boy in the strange white outfit. He gazed down at the demon with a blank hateful expression. "You tried to kill my friends, I won't forgive you."

"And what are you going to do, human?" said Sesshomaru, baring his claws in the boys direction.

"Please, you think you're in the same league as me?" mocked Sasuke, drawing his sword.

"Insolent human," said the demon, feeling anger rise within him at the outrageous challenge. "Die!" he fired the green energy whip at the boy, who let a smirk adorn his face before vanishing.

'What?!' thought Sesshomaru, speeds like that were unheard of, even among demons!

Sasuke, even though his chakra wasn't as powerful as usual, found his speed still as great as ever, mainly because it relied little on his chakra and more on his physical strength. He came up behind Sesshomaru much to fast for the demon to retaliate, and using the winged sword ran him through at the shoulder. It wasn't a fatal blow by any means, it wasn't even severe if the demon had any sort of regenerating abilities, but it got the point across.

"You'll find that I'm no normal human," said Sasuke, pulling the cold steel from the demon's body, and despite the calm, never wavering will of Sesshomaru he couldn't help but release a cry of pain.

'What?! That's impossible!' was all that ran through both Jaken's and Sesshomaru's minds. Not waiting for any further attacks, Sesshomaru turned and clawed at his opponent, just to realize that he was already gone. Back at the other side of the room with his comrades, all of which were fully recovered from the last attack.

"Give up Sesshomaru!" shouted InuYasha, not even he was stubborn enough to throw away the advantage they held over his brother. "You're beaten, there's no way you could defeat us all alone,"

"That, little brother, is where you are wrong," he said calmly as the whites of his eyes began to glow blood red. His mouth ripped apart, causing his grin to grow all the way to his ears and exposing a row of razor sharp teeth. The good guys watched with a mixture of fear and amazement as their enemy grew and transformed until he nearly filled the entire room with his massive form, which was now that of a dog.

"Is that?" asked Kagome.

"His true form," said InuYasha. "Ugly bastard,"

The group of shinobi tensed up, ready to attack at a moments notice, but InuYasha had other plans.

"Let me handle this," he said. "I need to be the one to do this," as soon as the words left his mouth Sasuke relaxed, he knew what InuYasha was feeling and he knew what he'd do if anyone tried to interfere.

"Don't die," he said, turning his back on the scene. Naruto and Hinata relaxed shortly after, they knew InuYasha wasn't trying to be stubborn. He had something to prove.

"Here, have this," said Kagome, holding out the Tetsusaiga. InuYasha looked at her with surprise for a few moments before accepting it.

"I promise, I'll protect you with it," he said as he grabbed hold of the handle. Instantly the dull blade burned yellow, transforming into a giant fang with a mat of fur for a cross guard. He was surprised at first, but let that die down after realizing that the weapon was a lot more useful in this form.

"Now, Sesshomaru, let's end this!" said InuYasha, pointing the gigantic blade at his demon brother, who barked and growled menacingly. The half demon charged, swinging the huge blade as he did, but Sesshomaru was still too fast, dodging to the side and batting at his brother with a giant paw. InuYasha was sent flying and crashed into the walls, sending an enormous crack through the structure. Sesshomaru followed up by pouncing on the spot, crashing completely through the bones of his father and taking InuYasha with him as they began plummeting down the sides of their enormous father.

"Take this!" shouted InuYasha, waving the giant sword in an overhand arc, smashing it into the other's chest and causing blood to spray from the wound. The dog howled in anger and rage as it tried to bite the half demon out of the air, he missed by inches and soon felt the sword catch him along the neck, coming terrifyingly close to being a fatal wound.

The ground was fast approaching, InuYasha knew that their freefall would soon come to an abrupt end. Quickly, he used the demon's neck as a spring board and launched himself towards the bones of his father, striking out at Sesshomaru's left arm on the way. The blade, combined with InuYasha's upward force and the downward plummeting of Sesshomaru cut clean through the arm. A wound not even a demon would heal from. Sesshomaru would die an exceedingly painful death alone, bleeding from a wound made by the sword he sought to acquire. A fitting end in InuYasha's eyes.

Slowly, the giant dog that had been Sesshomaru began to shrink, obtaining more human features until he was just a tiny white speck falling to his death.

InuYasha watched from the shoulder armor of his father's corpse, surprisingly he didn't feel as good as he thought that would make him. Quickly he threw away the thought, Sesshomaru was gone, it didn't matter how he felt. He looked over the various wounds he had received, many were bleeding freely but none were in dire need of medical attention. In all he'd come out of the ordeal unscarred.

"InuYasha!" shouted Kagome, running across the armor toward him, he watched her with a confused look as she tackled him, bringing the half demon into a full embrace.

"That was amazing!"

0o0o0o0o0

Sasuke walked around the little village, receiving odd glances from the local people. It felt odd being stared at like that, he didn't rightfully know why either, but kept his usual emotionless expression.

What troubled him even more was the fact that he never found Sesshomaru's corpse, after looking from the air with his sharingan he should have seen something, but the demon, along with his green sidekick were no where to be found.

'Something's wrong here,' he thought, looking up at the sky. A gust of wind appeared at that moment, whipping around his hair and clothing.

Naruto, in the comfort of Kaede's little house was feeling about the opposite, he and his new friends were busy celebrating a great victory with a large meal of meat, soup, vegetables, and plenty of conversation.

"What do ye suppose ye'd do next?" asked Kaede at one point, stirring the large pot of soup.

"Gather the jewel shards of course," replied InuYasha. "It's obvious isn't it?"

"Oh, speaking of which," said Kagome. "Where do you suppose we start?"

"That be not a problem," said Kaede. "The shards are scattered, all ye have to do is travel to different villages. Kagome should be able to sense when a jewel shard is near,"

"Sounds like a plan then!" said Naruto, before shoveling some more soup into his mouth. "When… do we… leave" he said in between mouthfuls.

"I say first thing tomorrow, the sooner we leave the better," stated InuYasha, receiving nods throughout the room, it was settled then.

0o0o0o0o0

Sesshomaru lay on the ground in the middle of a dense forest, he wasn't sure how he'd gotten there, but somehow he escaped the black pearl. However, his wounds were still too much. He could hardly feel the pain of them anymore, and if it wasn't for his demon strength he would be out cold. His eyes still glowed red, but it was dim, slowly he was losing the strength to keep himself alive. Vaguely he felt something tug at his senses, it was the smell of a human and it was close.

Enraged, he forced his head to the side, spraying blood from the wound in his neck, and growled at the intruder. A young girl that looked at him in fear.

Quickly her face changed, moving from one of terror to an expression of determination. She walked over to the demon's side, knowing he was too injured to attack, and splashed a cup of water onto his face.

Sesshomaru was definitely surprised, his eyes widened in shock before he finally realized what was going on.

'She wishes to save me?' he wondered, looking at the small, grinning face of the human child. Finally, he relaxed.

_-_-_

The next few days brought the girl back several times, but still Sesshomaru couldn't move. Occasionally she would come with just water, other times with makeshift medical supplies. However, on every occasion the girl would come, help him, smile, then leave without a word. It was truly uncanny for a human.

One day, she had brought him a plate of food containing a cooked fish and several other things.

"I don't eat human food," he said, pushing away the plate. Once again, the girl smiled, picked up the food, and ran off.

"Human's are so strange," he said, shortly after. The girl did something no one else would ever think of. Knowing full well he was a powerful demon she came to help him out, the more Sesshomaru thought about the weirder humans became.

Then, a few hours later, the girl returned. She carried another plate of food, this time it was accompanied by a lizard and a rat, both looked rather appetizing to the demon, but some manner of pride made him refuse.

"Don't bother," he said, and then he noticed something different about her. Her face was swollen and bleeding, dark blue and purple bruises adorned her right eye. She let out a silent sigh, disappointed about being rejected.

"What happened to your face?" asked Sesshomaru, oddly finding himself concerned. 'Did it happen because she was helping me?' when she didn't reply he let the matter drop, she didn't seem to talk much anyway.

Finally, she gave him a mangled grin, showing a missing tooth, and ran off towards her village.

'Why is she so happy?' he wondered.

* * *

Well there you have it, a bit short, but in the end effective. For the first major fight it wasn't that bad, but I think InuYasha could have had a greater role and wished I could have found room to have Hinata throw in at least one hit. (I'll be sure to do a dedicated chapter to her, to make up for it ^_^)

Also, I didn't want to wait to include Rin, however I may revise that part later to make it a little more… emotional. As it is I ran out of ideas right about there and just wanted to see this chapter done!

Now comes the hard part of picking and choosing what bad guys to include (Besides Naraku) and I'm not even sure how much of a major role Sango and Miroku are going to play. It's hard enough managing a group of five (InuYasha, Kagome, Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke)


	5. Chapter 5: Departure

Hey guys, once again there's just a few things I need to say here at the beginning, bear with me while I get them said.

First, this is what I'm going to call a transition chapter... it is VERY short... In general you could call this filler and skip it if you wanted and recieve absolutely no lack of knowledge later. The only point in this is to get the group out the door and give Hinata some spotlight.

second, I thank you guys for your support.

third, I don't own Naruto or InuYasha!

Chapter Five: Departure.

Naruto tightened the knot on his forehead protector, it was something of a good luck ritual to him and he did it before every mission. Today they left to hunt for the six shards of the Shikon Jewel, and in doing so find a way back home. He could only hope that Sakura wasn't to worried about them, he knew the rest would be fine if not a little shaken, but with both his and Sasuke's disappearance she might begin to lose hope.

Before walking out the door the blond Shinobi pulled a folded piece of paper from within a hidden pocket in his coat. The genin picture was one of his most treasured possessions, depicting how things use to be and reminding him that he always had friends to look after.

"I promise, I'll come back," he said, binding himself to the act. Once his promise was made only death could turn him back, and he'd never die while he had a promise to keep. 'I wonder if I will return back to my normal form when we get back,'

_-_-_

Hinata woke up long before the sun's first light, unable to get back to sleep she went outside to see if the cool fresh air would help her out a bit. It was a familiar feeling of homesickness whenever she left the village to the extent that she expected it on her mission. Understandably, it was worse this time. She was farther away than ever before, on a whole different world that was both terrifying and beautiful.

Once again she felt the faint tug of tears at her eyes, but held them back, refusing to cry now. She knew Naruto wouldn't cry, he would probably just feel more motivated to get home. How she wished to have his courage.

"Something wrong, Hinata?" came a voice from above, she quickly turned her head and found none other than the half demon InuYasha.

"I-I'm fine," she said weakly, if it weren't for his enhanced hearing InuYasha wouldn't have caught it. "Just a little… homesick,"

The half demon didn't say anything for a while, mainly because he didn't know what to say. He knew that human's emotions were fragile, and if he said one thing out of place she could completely break down. He did, however, have a question.

"What is your home like?" he asked, more out of his own curiosity then to comfort the woman. She remained silent for a moment, surprised with the question.

"What is it like?" he asked again, getting a tiny smile from the girl.

"It's a beautiful village," she began. "I-it's very big, and has thousands of people living in it, my friends and family, and…" she trailed off, suddenly feeling very homesick and scared.

"And… I may never see them again," she felt the tears begin to well up again as she came to that realization, no matter how many times she told herself they would get back the thought would return.

"There's no doubt about it," said InuYasha, receiving a terrified look from the Hyuuga girl. "If you're acting like that then there's no way you'll get home. Feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to change that," he said, actually surprising himself with how much he cared.

"Naruto-kun wouldn't give up… like me," she said, miserably, receiving a chuckle from the half demon.

"Who cares what he does," said InuYasha. "If you have to rely on what Naruto will do to make decisions then you might as well be his slave," he said, not at all gently. "If you can't find your own courage then you'll just be a parasite feeding off of his."

The message struck home in Hinata, carrying the force of the half demon's words and the truth into her heart. Now, more than ever she felt the tears come at her. She felt more useless than ever before, viewing herself as nothing more than a simple parasite, which she realized was a very proper analogy.

She remembered her father, who always called her worthless, she remembered Neji who was always protecting her because she wasn't strong enough, she remembered watching Naruto take out enemies in front of her while she was paralyzed with fear, but failed to remember the times when she herself rescued Naruto.

Then came the most vivid memory, she was walking around the training field with no purpose when Naruto showed up, just moments away from his fight with Neji during the Chunin exams. She had never seen him like she did then, his bright eyes were dull and he hung his head, as if to except defeat already.

_Flash back…_

"Neji is a relative of yours, right?" asked a young Naruto.

"Y-yes" she replied from behind a training post.

"He's strong, right?"

"Yes…" she replied, it was at that moment she noticed the only emotion she had never seen in Naruto. Fear.

"But I-I think you c-can beat him!" she said, desperately trying to bring him back to his old self. It didn't work, and soon he was back to being depressed.

"When you cheered me on," she said, quietly. "A-at the prelims… I felt like I had become stronger, I started to like myself a little more. Though it may not seem like it to others, I felt like I changed… It was thanks to you, Naruto-kun."

"Do you really think that?" he asked. "I may appear strong to you, but that's because I act tough, because I'm frustrated of failing,"

"That's not true… Even when you always fail… In my eyes you're a proud failure!" she said, feeling confident for one of the first times. "Because you fail, you have the strength to get back up… I believe that's what true strength is. You are an incredibly strong person, Naruto-kun,"

"Thanks Hinata," he said, it was just a simple thanks, but to her it was as if he had confessed his love.

_Flash back ends…_

'It was my strength that helped Naruto-kun that day,' she realized. 'On that day, he was the one who borrowed my confidence!' Immediately the urge to cry left her, in one moment realizing just how much she had done for the blond. If it weren't for her he would have died at the hands of Pain, if it weren't for her he would never have defeated Neji.

'If it weren't for me, Naruto-kun would never have made it this far,' she thought, turning her look into that of determination. 'In this journey, I'll be the one to carry him back home!'

"Thank you, InuYasha-sama," she said.

"What's with the formality all of a sudden?" asked the half demon, but when he looked around the girl was gone.

"Hn, women," he said, watching the sunlight break through the trees

'It's almost time…'

_-_-_

Sesshomaru slowly flexed his joints, it had been a long time since he'd been able to move. His body still felt weak, and it felt awkward only having one arm. However they were problems he ignored.

"Lord Sesshomaru, why is that human girl coming with us?!" asked Jaken, eyeing Rin with hateful eyes. She responded by giving a cute smile, causing even Jaken's will to falter, but his pride was too great to let that stop him.

"She's just going to be a burden!" yelled the imp, conveniently at that very moment a branch broke from one of the trees, knocking Jaken across the head. With a shout cry of pain the imp passed out as Sesshomaru and Rin got farther away.

"What's you're name?" asked the demon, not actually expecting an answer.

"Rin is Rin!" she said through a smile, causing Sesshomaru's eyes to widen for a second before his lips formed a small smile.

"Wait… for me… Lord Sesshomaru…" said Jaken from under the branch.

_-_-_

The group was gathered out in front of the village, prepared for the long road that lay ahead of them. They stood in a horizontal line by the small arc that marked the entrance, gazing out into the winding road and the hills that awaited them. Somewhere out there were six shards of the most powerful item ever created, and one unseen menace, watching through the eyes of his insects.

He chuckled to himself as the blond and the half demon stepped forward.

"Let's go!"


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry for the filler last chapter, but I needed to separate leaving the village from this chapter, and unless I threw in mind numbing amounts of boring in that last chapter there was no way I could make it very long, and we all hate boring.

Chapter Six: Kawaii-kun

"Wow, look at that forest!" said Kagome from the top of a hill, bellow her as far as the eye could see was dense forest with only one winding trail going through. For the Shinobi it was slightly less than what they were used to, true the forest was thick, but the trees were tiny, providing very little room to jump from branch to branch. Instead they would have to travel along the trail. Reluctantly, they settled into the monotony of the forest trail.

According to the map Kagome bough at the last town, if they marched from sun up to sun down, they would reach the first town in two days, taking breaks only for eating and to relieve themselves. The only entertainment any of them had was each others companionship, so they quickly busied themselves with meaningless chatter, all but InuYasha of course. He marched on at the front of the pack.

"Really?" asked Kagome in amazement, she looked at the blond with a delighted expression, she wanted to hear more.

"Ya, it's true," said Naruto. "In our world humans have awesome powers that they control through the use of chakra, the natural energy flowing through all living things. We could do things as simple as transform our appearance to as complicated as raising the dead," he said the last part with a spooky waver in his voice.

"I don't believe you!" said Kagome stubbornly.

"It's the truth!" replied Naruto.

"I'm not buying it, there's no way you could bring back the dead!" she said, finally perking Sasuke's interest, he knew the most about those kinds of techniques.

"It's actually a simple task," he said. "To animate another corpse all you really need to do is start their body functions with your chakra. While the beings that come back to life will no longer have any free will or feeling they can be easily manipulated and used as great human experiments,"

"That's horrible!" replied Kagome. "Using human's as test subjects, you didn't do anything like that, right?"

"No," replied Sasuke. "But I worked for the man that did for a while, but I never liked his motives or ideas,"

"What did you do?" asked the priestess.

"Simple," said Sasuke. "I killed him," the answer appeared to take Kagome by surprise, she knew ninjas were used for assassinations, and could understand Sasuke having killed before. But began to wonder if the other one's had killed before. Naruto and Hinata looked like they could never do such a thing.

"Have you all… killed before?" she asked, after a few seconds, once again surprised by their nods, as if they didn't care. 'Even Hinata?!' she thought, stupefied.

"How could you be so casual about that, it's not just something you do every day! Killing people is…" Naruto managed to stop the priestess mid sentence.

"It's wrong, we all know that," said Naruto. "But we are Shinobi, ninja, assassins, take your pick of word choice, while Konoha Shinobi are known for being soft we still need to follow orders. Eventually, you learn to not think about those you've killed,"

Now it was the completely honest answer that caught her off guard, she thought, or maybe hoped, that they would tell her they had no other choice, but according to their words it was the opposite,"

"You better get used to it, Kagome," called InuYasha from the front, naturally he heard the whole conversation. "Chances are that before this is done you'll have to kill others as well. Most will be demons, but I have no doubt that humans will get in our way as well,"

After that, Kagome fell eerily silent. Most likely thinking about what she had gotten herself into. Her thoughts were briefly interrupted by a bright flash of light towards the left, it was similar to a lightning strike but there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

Instinctively, Hinata activated her Byakugan and strained her vision as far as she could in this world. Just barely she could make out several chakra signatures in the distance, and they were obviously fighting.

"C'mon, it's this way," she said, pointing in the direction. Just as she prepared to leap away she heard InuYasha's bellowing voice.

"No way, we can't concern ourselves in the affairs of everybody. Besides, by the time you get there I bet they'll already be dead," to this, Naruto replied with a punch square in the half demon's jaw.

"We don't abandon anyone who's in trouble!" said Naruto, making the fact very clear.

"Sasuke!" shouted the blond. "You can get there the fastest, get there and help whoever's being attacked," Naruto didn't even have to give the order, Sasuke would have done it anyway.

"Hinata, InuYasha and I will follow you, Kagome can ride on his back," this time, InuYasha didn't argue, he had been taught who was in charge in this situation, and he'd also remember to think twice before he talked about people's lives like that.

"Let's go!" shouted Naruto, jumping after Sasuke.

_-_-_

"Look Manten, it seems like you have a new pelt," said Hiten, the oldest of the thunder brothers.

"That's right, his coat is so silky smooth," said the other, a demon whose head was in the shape of an egg. He had a long ponytail going down his head, but other than that very little hair. "I just wonder where that kit went, it would make a great pair of slippers."

And that was all Sasuke needed to hear, it was obviously a battle between demons, and one of them escaped. Telling him that there would be meaning in ending these demon's lives, sighing, the Uchiha walked out of the forest where he was hiding and out into the open, facing the two thunder brothers directly. Instantly he knew that the human looking one was more dangerous, lightning surrounded the demon as he spotted the "weak" human challenger. There was the unmistakable shape of a fox a few feet away, blood was running from its open mouth and its eyes were wide in pain, though it was obvious that it was already dead.

"You won't touch the demon's corpse," said Sasuke, placing his hand on the sword.

"Hey Manten, this human thinks that he's a match for the thunder brothers!" said the long haired, humanoid demon. He held a long spear that was strangely forked at the end, giving it the appearance somewhat of a lightning bolt.

"Hahaha! Please, allow me to take care of this one, brother," Sasuke felt a mental cringe when the strange looking demon called the other its brother, his mind instantly wandered to what on earth spawned the hideous creature.

"Sure, have fun," said the other, flying off into the distance. Sasuke noticed two wheels on both sides of his body, it must have been what gave him the ability to fly. The egg headed demon came closer to Sasuke, who didn't move at all, Manten didn't seem to notice the subtle death glare he received.

"You're a brave one, human," it said, before lashing out with its hand, slamming it into the side of Sasuke's face. The shinobi felt firm impact, but it was nothing compared to any of the hits he was used to taking on his world. he slowly turned his head to face the thunder brother, who was surprised that the attack didn't kill the stupid human, though he was far from feeling fear.

"Is that all?" asked Sasuke, he didn't even bother drawing his sword. This would be too easy.

Manten didn't take the insult too well, slowly he felt rage build up in his egg shaped body. Almost automatically lightning came to his mouth in his strongest attack.

"You'll pay for that, Human!" he shouted, releasing the fully charged blast of lightning from his mouth. It had the power to destroy villages, destroy even the strongest demons, it was overkill.

Even Sasuke knew he couldn't take that hit, with his chakra weakened this much he might be able to overpower it, but it would take a toll on his energy that would leave him gasping for air. With that in mind he did the simplest thing, he moved to the right.

"My turn," said Sasuke as the dust cleared, Manten once again felt rage and started charging his attack again. However, Sasuke had already completed the hand seals required for his signature attack.

"Chidori!" he yelled, charging at the demon with his entire hand covered with lightning, it was powerful enough to give off the sound of thousands of chirping birds. Then, with one quick movement he thrust his hand through the thunder brother's body, sending electricity coursing through the wound.

"What?!" shouted the thunder brother, clutching at the wound as Sasuke removed his hand.

_-_-_

Hiten actually hadn't gone very far, he hid behind a few rocks, watching what would become a one sided slaughter.

Unfortunately, it was the wrong side.

"Manten!" he shouted, throwing caution into the wind he charged at the human, swinging his thunder pike towards his neck. The attack met nothing but air as the Uchiha dodged, only receiving a small shock from the lightning that covered the blade.

"Hiten…" said the other brother, weakly.

"Manten!" replied the humanoid one, before rushing to the side of his brother.

"Brother… it hurts," said the inured one, still grasping at the wound in his chest.

"Don't worry, I'll get you out of here," said the other. "You'll be alright,"

"Yes…" replied the other, quickly becoming to weak to talk. Hiten picked up his fallen brother and carried him a few feet in the air before turning his head to the human.

"I'll kill you for this," he said, before speeding off into the distance.

_-_-_

"What happened here?" asked Naruto as he jumped through the tree line, instantly he spotted Sasuke sitting atop a rock.

"There was two demons, one was injured and the other one took him away to heal his injuries," said the Uchiha lazily. "The fox demon over there was what they were after, and they said something about a kit."

"A relative of yours, maybe," said InuYasha, closing the demon's eyes. It was both sarcastic and serious at the same time.

"Do you think we should burry it?" asked Kagome, who was beginning to feel nauseous.

"No," said InuYasha. "The fox demon's believe that they'd only obtain peace after death if they're left in the light," he said (A/N I'm pulling this out of my ass, not much is known about the fox demons, so I made stuff up.)

"I didn't know demons had any sort of faith," replied Sasuke, though it really didn't concern him.

"The fox demons were different, while they were great pranksters they had a strong sense of fellowship. If someone threatened their loved ones they would fight to the death," explained InuYasha. "There entire culture revolves around pranks and friendship,"

"So, in a weird way, they were the most 'human' of demons?" said Kagome, confusing herself with the words.

"It reminds me of you, Naruto-kun," said Hinata, playing with one of Naruto's ears.

"Let's hope that the kit got away okay," said Naruto, before walking over to the dead fox demon. Smiling he left the only gift he could at the moment, a single black kunai.

"Why the hell did you do that?" asked InuYasha.

"I felt like I should,"

0o0o0o0o0

The camp site was put up quickly, as it had been for the last few nights thanks to a few summoning scrolls Sasuke brought with him. The campsite would come out of the scrolls, already put together, with blankets and everything. At first it terrified InuYasha, but he gradually came to enjoy the convenience of it, even if he did prefer to sleep in the trees.

However, this got Naruto's mind running. If Sasuke's summoning scrolls were working, would he be able to summon toads in this world? It was worth a shot, heck he could even keep in contact with his team through frogs!

Kagome watched him with a strange look as he bit down on his thumb so hard he caused it to bleed, and for a second thought that he was going insane.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" he said, placing his hand on the ground. There was a large puff of smoke, as it died down the shinobi sighed.

"It was too good to be true," he said, looking down at the note that he summoned.

_"We're sorry, but the frog you are trying to reach has been disconnected from the summoning network, or you are out of range. Please try again later!"_ it read.

"Of course, it would be too easy to get home if we could summon," said Sasuke. "Things never end easily when you're involved, dobe," it had been a while since he insulted the blond, and he was afraid he'd start going through withdrawals if he didn't start up soon.

"Shut up, Sasuke," said Naruto, in no real mood to argue after that embarrassing failure.

"Um, how did the note get here if you can't summon the toads?" asked Hinata, both Sasuke and Naruto had overlooked that, and it was one thing they'd never be able to answer.

_-_-_

It was the deadest, darkest hours of night, long ago the group had fallen asleep, and now the dark figure made its move. It ran to a nearby tree, getting ever closer to the campsite before jumping and rolling into some nearby tall grass. Its red eyes glowed with malice and hate as it slowly stood up to attack its unsuspecting prey.

"Hello there," said a voice from behind it, then there was a flash of pain as the young fox demon rolled out of the grass and into the open light of the dimly smoldering fire. To his surprise none of the humans or half demons were sleeping.

"What are you doing here, little fox demon?" asked the same voice from behind, the kit slowly turned its head to face the angry eyes of the red clad half demon.

"Oh, um… I-I'm sorry for w-waking you!" he said. "Now I'll just be on my way!" but before he could make his cunning escape, he felt a hand pick him up by the collar of his shirt. Frantically he waved his tiny fox legs in an attempt to escape.

"I'll ask again. What are you doing here?" growled InuYasha, glaring at the little demon in front of him.

"Aaah! Don't eat me!" cried the little demon, which began to cower behind its arms. "I wanted to get that humans help in avenging my father!" he shouted, hoping that that would get him put down. It didn't, but it did get curious expressions from all around.

"Your father?" asked Kagome. "You don't mean that fox demon from earlier do you?"

"Yes," said the kit, more relaxed now. "It was that Hiten bastard that killed my father, and I won't stop until I see him avenged!"

The little fox's words caused a brief flare of nostalgia in Sasuke.

"Well, I guess you're not going to give up until you die, huh?" asked the Uchiha, looking at the little fox with emotionless eyes.

"That's right!" shouted the kit, who began to struggle once again.

"That's too bad," said InuYasha. "We don't do babysitting,"

"But we do help those in need of helping," corrected Naruto. "And I'm sure this world would be far better off with one less mindless murderer,"

"Oh, come on!" shouted InuYasha, dropping the kit. "We have to search for the jewel shards! We can't spend our time on something as small as this!"

"And where do you suppose we start looking?" asked Sasuke. "We have absolutely no leads in the location of any of the shards, by helping this kit we could get a clue, after all it makes sense to search among powerful demons,"

"I have a name you know," said the fox.

"And what is it?" asked Kagome.

"Shippou," he said.

"No," came a dead serious voice from the back of the group. "Your name shall be…" suddenly the source of the voice came walking from behind the crowd, glaring down at the kit.

"KAWAII-KUN!" she squeaked, picking up the small fox demon and giving it a bear hug. "Cute,cute,cute,cute!" she screamed as his face turned from white, to blue.

"Hinata, you're going to kill him!" shouted Naruto.

"Sooooo cute!"

0o0o0o0o0

"So, Sasuke," said InuYasha, they were walking down the path again on the way to the next town. "How do you know that we'll find Hiten if we go this way?"

"Simple," replied Sasuke. "He swore revenge, he'll come find me no matter where I go, all we need to do is wait for a while,"

"Well, I hope he gets here soon," said Shippou, who sat on Hinata's shoulders.

"It won't be long," replied Sasuke, eyeing a strange storm cloud forming from the east.

_-_-_

Hiten openly cried for the first time, he didn't hate himself for it, a brother's life was well worth a few tears. He had tried everything he knew about healing, from potions to herbs but nothing stopped the bleeding

"Hiten.. I'm done for," said Manten weakly, looking up into his brother's eyes.

"No, just hang on a while longer!" replied Hiten. "I can't lose you!"

"I'm... Sorry brother. I can't" said the other, slowly.

"Hang on!"

"Have… fun… Hiten," said the injured thunder brother, before his eyes glazed over.

"MANTEN!" he shouted, pouring all of his love into the cry. Lightning flashed all around him, destroying the small hut they called a home. Everything for a mile was was wrecked as lightning shot through the landscape. The attack lasted for at least ten seconds, leaving behind a rampart of scorched earth, everything was destroyed, all except for him and his brother.

Making it all the weirder when Hiten spotted the strange figure, he was standing on top of a nearby hill, looking down on the scene. Manten didn't like the looks of this figure, from the way he stood all the way to the baboon pelt he wore.

"Hello, Hiten," said the figure. "I am Naraku,"

* * *

Alright! Chapter six is done! It's still a few words shot of my average chapters, but contained some good stuff.

This is coming along very nicely, chapter six already, but I'm not sure exactly how many chapters there will be, so I can't tell you how far in we are. I'd tell you to expect anywhere between thirty and fifty.

Please review and submit your thoughts!


	7. Chapter 7: A Storm with no Calm

Hey guys, I'm back! But for some odd reason don't have much to say... Oh well, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter Seven: A Storm with no Calm

Village life was going on like normal in the tiny town, farmers hauled their crop into the village storehouse, women tended to the shopping and cooking, and the children enjoyed themselves. All ignoring the storm cloud brewing only a few miles away.

Any half educated idiot could tell the ominous clouds that adopted almost a purple sheet were not natural. Lightning fell from the clouds in brief flashes, followed by a quiet, almost inaudible drum of thunder. To InuYasha and Naruto, each of these brief blasts was exceptionally loud.

"How much do you want to bet that's Hiten out there gathering his strength," said the red clad half demon.

"T-that power is terrifying!" said Hinata, who sat on a boulder, accompanied by Shippou.

"It's probably nothing compared to Sasuke-teme," replied Naruto, lying down casually next to the boulder. Sasuke didn't answer but simply stared at the growing clouds, for a brief moment his Sharingan activated, showing the clouds in their true form.

He discovered that instead of the blue glow that was usually the color of chakra, this was a strange dark purple mixed with faint streaks of black, and there was a lot of it.

Quickly he felt his sharingan drain at his weakened chakra, then let it fade out of his eye. He was confident in his ability to match the power of the lightning being shown, but how long his endurance would last was the real problem.

'At the rate it drains my chakra I could possibly keep the sharingan activated for fifteen minutes,' he theorized. 'If the battle became troublesome I could keep the Mangekyo up for maybe three minutes, and use a weak Ameturasu only once,' he doubted the battle would go that far, and he would also have comrades fighting with him. However, he needed a fail safe. In the fight he knew he was going to be the most targeted, his actions against the other Thunder Brother were unforgivable. Naruto didn't have the chakra control for what he had in mind, so that left Hinata, though Sasuke knew very little of her abilities.

"Hinata," he said at last. "I want you to come with me, I have something to ask of you," at first the Hyuuga looked surprised, but quickly nodded her head in agreement, abandoning her spot from atop the boulder to join the Uchiha. As soon as they were out of even the half demon's enhanced hearing Sasuke began his explanation.

"It's about the fight," said Sasuke, instantly quelling the Hyuuga's first question. "I'm confident in this team's ability to beat Hiten… but I want to have something just in case,"

"Really?" asked Hinata. "What can I do to help?"

"Your primary elemental affinity is to water, correct?" asked Sasuke.

"Yes,"

"Then here's what I want you to do,"

_-_-_

Hiten kept up his slow paced march, after all, he had all of the time in the world. The longer he held back his lust for revenge the more powerful the urge to rush off and destroy that human became. However, he wanted them to despair at the coming of his storm. The gift from Naraku was an amazing one, and the offer was not yet done.

It was impossible to refuse, the demon had offered him the ultimate revenge and the power to make gods jealous. Even now he felt the humming of energy from within his body and the thunder lance at his side, it was a power he never could have imagined, but then again it he held an item far greater than any weapon.

He had heard the rumors that the Shikon Jewel had been broken into several pieces, it's what motivated him and his brother to set out and go on a killing spree. The fun was short lived as only a week after it began his brother was stricken down by that accursed human.

Along with one of the pieces of the jewel he was offered something far more precious, Naraku would bring back his fallen brother. He had heard of demons capable of this feat before, but there were never any names exchanged. He almost didn't believe the baboon skin clad demon until he showed Hiten the glowing blue flame that was his brother's soul.

He felt the sense of superiority wash over him, there was no way he could lose this battle, and he would make sure the human died a slow and agonizing death after watching his comrades be slaughtered before his eyes. Once again he fought back the urge to rush off and destroy, the longer he held back, the more sweet his revenge would be.

"You will despair, human," he said as a psychotic grin stretched across his face.

_-_-_

"It's so creepy," said Shippou, who now was content with hiding in the hood of Hinata's sweater.

"What is, Kawaii-kun?" asked Hinata, trying in vain to look at the small fox demon, who was just out of her vision.

"The clouds, they keep moving closer, but they're so slow!" he said, a sudden rumble of thunder sent him cringing and digging deeper into the hood.

"Are you scared of lightning, Kawaii-kun?"

"No way!" Retaliated Shippou. "But it's perfectly reasonable to be terrified of a super powerful demon!"

"He's got a point there," added Kagome, who had broken into a cold sweat. 'My god, what have I gotten myself into?!'

"Please, powerful demon my butt," said InuYasha. "I could take him with my eyes closed."

"I don't see you creating a hurricane over land…" retaliated Kagome.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"It means exactly what it sounds like," said Sasuke, slightly more grim than usual. "You are strong InuYasha, but the truth is you can't beat this enemy without our help. Truth be told I'm not sure if we can beat him together," his words instantly caught the attention of all of those around. Naruto and Hinata knew that Sasuke could be defeated, but to the other two having heard the Uchiha's doubts began sporting their own. Even InuYasha couldn't help but feel a cold shiver run down his spine.

"Why'd you have to go and kill his brother?" moaned the half demon, keeping on his carefree mask.

"Demon or not, he murdered that fox in cold blood," said the Uchiha, replying coldly himself. "And as a Jonin of Konoha I have the authority to carry out an execution to whomever I deem too dangerous to live, your world seems to have a lot of them,"

"Sasuke," this time it was Naruto who spoke up. "You know that killing all who you deem evil will just breed more hatred and violence, if you hadn't have killed the other brother we could have done things more peacefully."

"We're not in our world anymore, dobe, I'm not sure if you've taken a look at a map, but here the countries are constantly shifting, borders expand, shrink, and powerful demons wipe out entire villages at will," Sasuke said, then allowed his eyes to fall into a glare. "Your peace is possible in our world, here it is not even worthy of being called a false hope, here it is an outright lie."

"So does that mean we're going to go around and Slaughter every demon we find?!" Retaliated Naruto.

"Yes," stated Sasuke, completely destroying Naruto's argument. "If they are hostile towards humans, then I will destroy them like I would kill a rouge bear."

"Not all demons are evil!" retaliated Hinata, who had remained quiet in this situation for to long. Receiving nothing but a brief chuckle from InuYasha.

"Yes, they are," he said. "All demons, just by their nature, are nothing but killing machines. Even the kit that hides in your outfit has been bred and trained to kill, and if it weren't for these beads around my neck I would have long ago killed Kagome and had the Shikon Jewel,"

"Exactly my point," said Sasuke. "Humans can't live with demons, and demons can't live with humans. To achieve your peace, Naruto, one of these races will need to go extinct. For the few demons that actually have lived along side humans, their genetics will eventually kill themselves as they breed with humans, until so little of that gene remains that you could safely say that demons don't exist… and the ones who kill and destroy… will be annihilated," the message struck home, hitting the shinobi at his very core. Sasuke knew it was a cruel way to break the truth to his companion, but he'd need to get used to cruel if they ever were to get home. He knew all about places like this.

In his time training with Orochimaru he had gone many places, one of them happened to be a land off to the north. If there was one word he could use to describe that land it would be chaos, and in that one word he might as well have told you the lands history. There was no law; settlements were temporary because they were always destroyed by some means, they constantly fought for power amongst themselves. It was almost a perfect copy of this world. To get back home they would need to be merciless, add huge numbers of demons to the picture and they'd be lucky to get back home at all.

"So, how do I fit into your equation?" asked Naruto, feeling his chakra begin to blow around him by its own will. "How can you say that all demons are evil when I look like this?!" he felt his voice begin to rise, but didn't hold it back.

"Naruto kun, please!" shouted Hinata, through the ever increasing wind of chakra. Suddenly, Naruto's anger flared, sending a blast of through the group, scattering all except for Sasuke, who appeared unaffected.

Sasuke stared into the eyes of his friend, he knew that this problem would come sometime in the near future, and it might as well have been now. It had been bothering him ever since Naruto's strange transformation and getting him this angry was the only way he could test his theory. What he feared for turned out to be true as he watched the other's blue eyes color begin to drain. He didn't need to continue watching to know that they'd stop at blood red.

"Naruto," he said, almost inaudibly over the thrashing wind. "You're not helping to prove your point," as the words escaped his lips he watched the blonds eyes widen for a fraction of a second, followed shortly be the cease in the wind. Then the blond fell over, unconscious.

"What was that?!" Demanded InuYasha.

"That is what I've feared," said Sasuke. "Naruto's more of a time bomb than ever,"

_-_-_

Once again Naruto felt himself within his own mind, it was happening a lot more often lately, he figured he was lucky that he still held on to his memories just before he passed out. His eyes were still shut, but he was in no hurry to open them.

'That's what Sasuke was doing,' thought Naruto, hearing the thought echo through the environment. 'He didn't mean all of the stuff he said, he was just trying to get me angry for this…'

The shinobi opened his eyes, expecting to see some manner of horrid sight in front of him, and he saw it all right. He just wished that it wasn't his reflection he was looking at.

The left side of his body was completely normal, no fangs, claws, or fuzzy fox ears on top, but the right side of his body was an entirely different story. It seemed to look like the epitome of demonic, his hair was jagged, containing a light shade of red, the fox ear that adorned his head was long and bent over halfway up, giving him a lazy appearance. His eye glowed the purest shade of red, interrupted only by the thin streak of black that was the pupil. The claws on that side grew out for at least three inches before diving in a cruel looking curve.

He felt his face tug from the right, realizing that half of his body was smirking, revealing a fanged grin.

_**"Ah, Naruto,"**_ he said, hearing his voice mixed with the ever familiar boom of the Kyuubi's. _**"I'm so happy you could join me in here, and I can't tell you how thankful I am that you brought me here!"**_

_**"If I remember correctly, just a few days ago you were screaming in pain to let you out,"**_ replied the same voice, it was strange to have a conversation with yourself.

_**"Details,"**_ he replied. _**"It turns out that my, already great power, is increased in this world. My, it's an exhilarating feeling, you can even take a look at what I did while you were out there!"**_ with that the demonic part of him reached into its pocket, pulling out a piece of white paper. White paper with the word "Seal" on it. Suddenly the left side's eyes widened in shock, was that what he thought it was.

_**"It's a bit strange,"**_said the demon side. _**"That I've been trapped in you for almost twenty years and now have free reign over your body. It's a pity your accursed father didn't wait until now to fix the seal, even with this strength I doubt I could pull it off a second time,"**_

_**"You bastard,"**_ said the human side, but was unable to follow up the insult. What could you say to offend a demon like the Kyuubi.

_**"What's the point in insulting yourself," **_replied the sarcastic tones of the demon. _**"After all, we are the same being now. Sure we may have different personalities, but we are finally what you're entire village hated you for,"**_

_**"I am not you!" **_snapped the human Naruto.

_**"Ah, but you are," **_replied the Kyuubi. _**"Or, at least you are now. We did merge, remember?"**_

_**"Liar!" **_shouted Naruto.

_**"Ah, then how do you explain your new look?" **_asked the Kyuubi. _**"You yourself called it fitting if I do so remember, and even you aren't stupid enough to think that it was you who contributed those features after the merge. The entire body you occupy is of my creation, sure I through in some human features and let you control it, but it's still my body, and I can take it back whenever I want."**_

_**"Why are you doing this?!"**_ shouted Naruto.

_**"Because it's more fun than I've had in my entire life!" **_replied the Kyuubi, whose eye rolled up in a sick sense of pleasure. _**"Just when you think I'm gone, I'll pop up and take your body! Isn't it just thrilling to think about which of your friends I'll kill first?!"**_

_**"Touch them and you'll die!" **_shouted Naruto.

_**"Then you'd have to kill yourself!" **_roared the Kyuubi before breaking out into a fit of sadistic laughter. _**"As I said before, it's my body, you're just using it. How does it feel, to be MY tenant?!"**_

_-_-_

"Damn, this is bad," said InuYasha, who struggled to keep Naruto's struggling body down. The whole time he had been unconscious he was assaulted with waves of violent spasms and chakra outbursts that only seemed to get more powerful. InuYasha took a second to look behind him, noticing that the storm clouds were no more than a mile away now.

"Dammit Naruto," cursed Sasuke under his breath, it was apparent that the demon fox's hold on him was quickly spreading. In only a few short moments Hiten would be upon them, and his bloodlust might be just enough to give the Kyuubi control. What Sasuke didn't know was that the Kyuubi could take control despite the circumstances.

"We've got no choice," said the Uchiha, pounding his fist into the ground. "Hinata, forget the plan, take Naruto, Shippou, and Kagome as far away as possible, InuYasha and I will hold back Hiten,"

Hinata noticed the way Sasuke said "hold back" and not take care of like he usually would have. However she could worry about that later, right now Naruto needed to be away from this place.

"Okay!" she replied, before picking Naruto up bridal style. "Kagome, get to that hill over there as fast as possible, I can't carry both of you," she said, before jumping off into the distance faster than the human could see, Kagome was about to protest until she realized that there would be no point in her helping in this fight. If anything she'd just get in the way, so resigning herself to her weakness she ran off in the direction Hinata pointed at. But on the way swore that she would never run away again.

_-_-_

Sasuke watched the dark sky slowly blot out the sun above them, there was no rain, wind, or cold that came with the ominous black cloud, just lightning. The cloud hurled blue lightning bolts at whatever seemed bold enough to stand, smiting trees and shrubs to nothing but ash and leaving the would be battlefield nothing but a smoldering wasteland. The bolts curiously never touched anywhere near the Uchiha or InuYasha, which is when Sasuke realized how truly outmatched he was.

Whereas he used electricity to fight, his opponent seemed to contain the god-like power to make electricity fight for him. Suddenly the Uchiha watched emotionlessly as one final, gigantic lightning bolt struck the ground only feet away from the two. As the bright light cleared it revealed the older thunder brother, smirking among the smoldering earth and glass his showy entrance created.

"Well, have I given you enough time to say your prayers?" he asked, tightening the grip on the thunder lance at his side.

"Don't make me laugh, you're the one who needs so say their prayers!" retaliated InuYasha, but Hiten didn't care about the half demon. Of course he would die when this was all through, but the human, if he was indeed human, was far to calm for Hiten's taste.

"So, are you ready to repay for the life of my brother?" he asked, spinning the lance above his head before entering a fighting stance.

"Hardly," replied the Uchiha, who reached for the hilt of his sword. "But I am ready to send you back to him,"

"Heh, one could only hope," remarked the lightning demon. "But not even you can stand up to the power given to me by the Shikon Jewel," the words caused InuYasha's eyes to widen in response, but Sasuke felt his chances begin to look up.

"Power given to you will always turn," he said, before disappearing in his trademark burst of speed.

The sword and lance collided with a shower of sparks, not just from the impact but from the electrical current that ran through both. Sasuke felt the buzz of electricity through the hilt of his blade, he might have been able to match the power if he weren't dead set on conserving as much chakra as possible.

Quickly, Sasuke let the tension in his blade free, causing Hiten to be sent off balance and falling forward. Sasuke swung his sword in an over handed blow, aiming for the neck of his opponent. He felt the sickening felling of metal sliding through flesh and the crunch of bone, but beyond all that contained one thought.

'That was far too easy,'

Turns out he was correct, feeling a sudden blast of electricity run through his body. In the time that had been standing still he was struck by one of the bolts of lightning in the sky. If it weren't for his quick chakra channeling the blast would have killed him.

"Sasuke!" shouted InuYasha, just now getting the idea to draw Tetsusaiga. The blade grew as he removed it from its sheath, expanding into the mightier fang form.

InuYasha covered the distance between them in a single leap, but was not nearly fast enough. To fast for his senses to track, he was hit from behind and sent crashing into the ground, blood spraying from the electrified cut made by the Thunder Lance. Hiten smirked as he watched his first opponent go down, though he didn't know of this particular half demons will power.

Quickly, Sasuke began summoning the chakra for his next attack, using as little as possible to make it what he needed.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" he shouted, before releasing a huge ball of fire at the thunder brother. The attack had two elements of surprise behind it, first was that Hiten wasn't looking, second was that no one in this world had seen him use a fire Jutsu yet. As such the demon took a direct hit, frying his skin to a stunning degree.

The injured brother fell to his knees in pain, but already Sasuke could see his skin reforming. However, he had discovered quite a weakness. It didn't matter how strong you were, one doesn't get up quickly after being burnt alive. While the Shikon Jewel shard healed him the body was wide open.

Wasting no more time on thought, Sasuke rushed forward, pouring a safe amount of lightning chakra into the blade. The fireball Jutsu took a heavier toll on him than he was expecting so he'd need to hold back for a while.

Hiten felt the sting of the electrified blade at least fifteen times as his skin healed, which was slowed down several fold by the slashes he received. The pain was so great he was actually beginning to feel numb, which was exactly what he needed at that point. He quickly thrust his arms out to the side, using his body as a lightning rod he summoned the huge resources of his power.

"This is the end, human!"

"Not today!" retaliated Sasuke, activating his sharingan. Immediately he could see the enemies "chakra" if he could call it that, and found the safest passage to dodge. He was not a second to late as the clouds above him spewed a lightning bolt so massive it could only be described as an enormous block.

Already he felt the chakra drain that his eyes caused, and knew immediately that he wouldn't be able to keep it up for that long.

'In that case, I might as well go straight to the finishing move,' he thought, though he was very reluctant to lose any more of his vision he wouldn't have enough chakra to finish the demon if he didn't. Slowly, the world around him began to warp and transform, doubling some images and sending the world spinning.

'Dammit, it always has to be difficult to aim this thing!' he thought, as a thin trail of blood ran down his eye. "Ameturasu!"

The black flames began to appear wherever Sasuke's vision went, anything and everything he focused on was destroyed by the god-fire. And that included a certain Thunder Brother.

Sasuke's attack just barely hit but it was still there, a small black flame caught hold of the demon's shirt, a flame that would burn for several weeks without going out. Instantaneously the chakra strain was evident, after just the few seconds of holding the flame he could hardly stand. His Sharingan deactivated, there was not enough chakra to keep it running anymore, and the Uchiha fell to his knees.

"Is that truly the best you got?" asked Hiten, using the power of the Jewel to keep the fire contained. He couldn't put it out, so he just needed to stop it from spreading, not even it could burn the energy of the jewel and quickly the fire turned into nothing more than a black smoldering ember that clung to his left arm. Even so, the heat was intense and he was in definite pain, but there was only one thing left for him to do. Slowly kill the human that slaughtered his brother.

"I don't think so!" shouted InuYasha, as if reading the thunder brother's thoughts. Unfortunately for the half demon he knew nothing about the powers of the Ameturasu flame and saw the burning black spot as a wide open weakness. Sure enough, the Tetsusaiga cut through the arm as if it were butter, but caught some of the consuming black flame on the fang.

"Wh- Wait, What is this stuff?!" he shouted as the flame grew with no Shikon energy to hold it back, already in caught on the fir and was threatening to catch the handle.

"InuYasha, drop the sword!" shouted Sasuke, trying to force the chakra required to kill the flames. He actually did drop the sword, but more because of the heat than Sasuke's warning.

For just a second the flower petal image of the Mangekyo sharingan appeared in Sasuke's eye, and in that second he managed to dispel the flames he created. In the second before he passed out he looked over at the Tetsusaiga, the blade had returned to the shape of a dull katana and was already halfway eaten by the flames.

Then, unable to keep himself awake, Sasuke fainted. Leaving only InuYasha, unarmed and injured, to fight the godlike thunder brother.

"Miserable half breed," said Hiten as his arm grew back, conveniently the black flame was cut off with the old arm, so he was more or less unharmed from the attack. "But I guess I should thank you, now all I have to do is-" Hiten turned his head to the right, his sensitive hearing picked up the sound of a high pitched whine. The human was down, and the half breed wasn't doing it, so who could it be? Quickly the answer came.

"Futon: Rasenshuriken!" Suddenly, from a distant hill, Hiten saw a brief flash of blue before the attack was on him. It looked like a giant blue shuriken with a spiraling ball of energy on the inside, and it was heading right for him.

Unable to dodge at the speed the attack was moving, he summoned lightning from the sky to strike at the ball of energy. It responded by letting out an even louder high pitched whine before slamming into Hiten's side.

A few miles away, on top of that distant hill stood Naruto, looking through his golden, frog-like eyes.

"Even after that he's still alive," said Naruto. "The Shikon Jewel is pretty strong!" Naruto took a step forward, followed by Hinata, Shippou, and Kagome.

"But, I'll bet we're stronger,"

* * *

BLAM! Cliff hanger! Hahaha people hate those!

Anyways, sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out, I had other plans, but scrapped them and did this. Things were going along way to smoothly for the group, so throwing the Kyuubi back into the situation should keep things interesting.

Also, I've noticed the chapters are getting shorter and shorter, so I'll try to drag the next one out.

Read and Review, they make me feel all warm and fuzzy!


	8. Chapter 8: The Storm Ends

Finally the moment you've been waiting… three days for… I've gotta start updating like twice a month or something, if I keep giving you two chapters a week you guys don't get to feel the suspense! Either way, I'm very happy that this chapter is longer than the previous few, I'm finally back where I want to be as far as chapter length.

Well, without any further interruptions, here's chapter eight! (Already?!)

Chapter Eight: The Storm Ends

InuYasha scrambled to his sword, but the wound on his back kept him from moving at any great speed. When he clutched Tetsusaiga it transformed back into the fang the half demon was used to, but the scars from the flame still remained. The sharp edge of the blade was nonexistent and was lined with a jagged black section where the blade met the flames extreme heat. In all, the blade was now worthless, and it pained him to see the sword he had grown very familiar with suddenly broken as it was. He quickly let his grief slip away, Hiten was still regenerating from the blast that hit him and in the distance he could see the shapes of the shinobi rushing towards the battlefield.

With the sword sheathed, the half demon did the only thing he could think of, attack the still vulnerable Hiten. Forcing his broken body into a light run he began slashing and hacking with his claws at the places where the demon's skin and flesh were regenerating.

"Stupid half demon!" shouted Hiten, before sending a wave of electricity through the ground. InuYasha felt the energy course through him and was forced into spasms as the shock died down. As soon as the pain faded he fell to his knees, panting as smoke rose from his fried skin.

"Reinforcements, huh," muttered Hiten, looking in the direction of the charging Shinobi, they weren't far away now and they ate the distance faster than any normal human could have. He gave a silent grunt, showing his annoyance of the situation, and then held his right hand out. Automatically the Thunder Lance leapt into it, giving an electrified hum as it felt its master's touch.

"I'll finish this quickly," he said, before swinging the blade at the ever closer group. A bolt of lightning shot from it's tip, flying much to fast for any of them to dodge. However, dodging was not in Naruto's game plan.

Seeing the lightning bolt rush at them he quickly took point, taking the blast of blue energy head on. Despite the fact that he was already in sage mode he felt the electricity flow through him, under normal circumstances it would have enough power to kill even the strongest of demons.

The blond shrugged off the effects, before doubling his current speed. Faster than the eye could see he found himself face to face with the thunder brother.

Hiten stared into this opponents bright yellow eyes, they were in horizontal slits and looked much like a frogs. Around his eyes were light red rings, giving his face an even more alien look. Coupled with the whiskers and the ears one could say he was a very confusing half demon, and a half demon that just took tens of thousands of volts of electricity.

"Die already!" Hiten shouted, swinging the thunder lance in an attempt to impale the other. The steel tip met with Naruto's unbreakable skin, with the later winning the battle. The tip of the spear shattered, sending electrified shards of metal flying in every direction.

Hiten tossed the useless weapon aside and gathered lightning into his fists, jabbing at the blond half demon who easily dodged every strike. He was so focused on his current target that he never noticed the human who was coming up from behind, and remained completely oblivious until a sudden pain shot through his back. It burnt all the way through and caused the feeling of flames among his organs, but the hit wasn't as powerful as the others and he managed to spin around and kick his attacker, who flew back a few feet.

"Now!" she shouted in air, flipping over and skidding a distance more. Quickly she changed the momentum to forward and was rushing at the thunder brother.

"Got it!" called another person, Hiten spun to see another human, this one held a bow already at full draw. "Fire!" she yelled, releasing the arrow, it contained a strange blue aura causing a strange feeling to run down Hiten's spine. He easily dodged the projectile, knowing it was dangerous causing it to slam into the ground and explode a few feet away, and then spun to meet the other female attacker who was quickly coming within range. He threw a lightning enhanced fist, aiming to stop the girl dead in her tracks, but using speed that he didn't expect she leapt over the arm, allowing her feet to meat his face on the way over.

Momentarily set off balance, Hiten stumbled back a second, giving enough time for Naruto to enact the second part of his plan. With Hinata still sailing through the air, he grabbed onto her hand, holding it firmly, she smiled telling him that he should do it. Quickly, Naruto did a full rotation, spinning Hinata with him, and then released the Hyuuga in the direction of the just recovering Hiten.

She hit him with both feet square in the back, amplified by the throw of Naruto's sage mode the attack sent Hiten blasting off in the opposite direction at speeds that broke the sound barrier.

"Kawaii kun, Now!" she called after him, and directly in the path of Hiten sprung up a giant pink balloon with and odd pair of eyes. He hit the pillow, creating a strange bouncing noise. The force of the impact sent Shippou's transformation back a few feet, but in the end he got the upper hand, firing Hiten back in the direction of the shinobi.

As Hiten flew closer, Naruto stepped up with a clone and quickly began charging a Rasengan. It was already at maximum power when the thunder brother was within range, and using the momentum of Hiten to his advantage, Naruto rushed forward and slammed the ball of energy into his chest, right where Kagome said the Jewel shard was.

Immediately there was a sickening tearing sound, the group witnessing the attack looked away as chunks of gore flew from the impact, shortly followed by a cloud of dust kicked up by the high speed of the collision.

As the dust settled, it revealed Naruto standing with his arm clean through Hiten's chest, or at least what was left of it. Most of Hiten's left side was nothing but shredded skin and blood, while the shard of the jewel was held In Naruto's hand that protruded through the demon.

"It's finished," said the blond as his eyes returned to their normal blue form, the attack completely pushing the limits of his sage chakra. Then, he pulled his hand out from the demon's mutilated body, looking at the slightly darker pink shaded Shikon Jewel shard.

Then the last thing anyone would have expected happened, a laugh broke through the silence, the laugh of a crazed Hiten.

"All according to plan!" he shouted as the blown apart chunks of his body returned to their original places.

"What?!" shouted Naruto, he was sure he had the jewel shard in his hand, but as he turned his head to look at it he saw not a solid shard, but just dust.

"A fake!" he exclaimed, before feeling a powerful hand close around his neck, though it wasn't a choke hold, experience told him that would come soon.

"A futile attempt, half breed," mocked the Demon, applying a little pressure to the hold, he heard one of the females call his name, apparently it was Naruto. "Well, Naruto, I could kill you now," he said, closing his hand even more on the blond's throat. "Or, you can sit back and watch as I kill these humans, and then you'll die."

"You won't touch them!" shouted the Shinobi, grabbing onto the arm that held him in place. He tried to pull it away from his neck, but couldn't find the strength.

"Is that a weakness I've found?" said Hiten playfully. "Well, in that case which one should I blast first… This one," he pointed at Kagome. "Or this one," and he pointed to where Hinata was. Or at least had been. The demon's eyes grew wide once he realized the other human was gone.

"Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou!" shouted the Hyuuga, who Naruto noticed was now directly behind them. He smirked as he remembered the name of the attack, it was the same thing Neji used on him during the Chunin Exams.

"Niishou!" shouted the Hyuuga, as the first two hits made contact with Hiten's back.

"Yonshou!" four hits.

"Hachishou!" eight

"Juu hakushou!" sixteen

"Sanjuu niishou!" thirty two, by this Hiten had already released his iron hold on Naruto, each hit sent agonizing blasts of pain throughout his entire body. He could actually feel his internal organs being hit by the burning blasts of energy emitted from the Hyuuga's fingers.

"Rokujuu Yonshou!" came the final shout, and within the course of two seconds sixty four individual hits were sent through Hiten's body, and very suddenly he felt every single drop of energy within him drain away.

"Kagome!" shouted Naruto. "Where's the real jewel shard?!"

The priestess didn't answer immediately, but remained very quiet in her focus. Soon she saw three pink glowing spots on the demon's body.

"There are three of them!" she shouted. "One in each of his shoulders and another close to his stomach!"

"So there are two more fakes, you certainly prepared for this," muttered Naruto, removing a kunai from his coat sleeve. "Doctor Uzumaki ready for surgery," he said with an evil grin.

"Quickly!" shouted Hinata. "His energy is already returning!"

Naruto stabbed at the left shoulder first, adding wind chakra to the blade he then cut across the hole. A small pink shard fell from the wound and quickly turned into dust.

"That's one!" shouted Naruto, as Hiten steadily got to his feet. Adding even more chakra to the blade Naruto extended its effective range to that of a long sword and sliced the demon's body in half at the stomach. This time he didn't see any shards fly from the wound, meaning that he must have missed it.

The blond shinobi readied to slice at the stomach section again, but as his blade came down he felt a blast of electricity flow through his body. Since Hiten was still regaining his energy it wasn't a lethal amount, but it sent Naruto flying backwards a few feet and gave him ample time to regenerate his body.

Now standing, Hiten cracked his neck as he felt the energy he previously held return. His eyes moved around the crowd of people. Starting on Naruto and making its way around one hundred and eighty degrees to where Sasuke still lay unconscious. The only one that wasn't present was the kit of the fox demon he had slain the day his brother died. It wouldn't have concerned him, if the small demon had run away, but he could feel that it was somewhere near.

"Naruto kun! Are you okay?!" shouted Hinata, who kneeled down in front of Naruto's dangerously still form. She heaved a huge sigh of relief when his eyes flickered open and saw the smile that appeared on his face.

"I'm not giving up that easily," he said, before getting to his feet. Hiten watched with an emotion he could identify as disgust, he hated vermin that didn't know when to stay down. Soon both Naruto and Hinata were side by side and glaring at the Thunder Brother. Silent furry passed between them and the tension was so thick you could almost see it through the air.

Hiten returned their glare with the same amount of killing intent, silently he held his hand out to the right, causing the blade of the Thunder Lance to jump to it. He grasped the metal at the base, cutting his hand on the sharpened metal, and squeezed, quickly he managed to bend the sharp edge into a makeshift handle. It would do for what he had in mind while his hand was already fully healed.

Then something unexpected happened. There was a flash of lightning and a low roar of thunder, the only difference between it and the other bolts of lighting was that Hiten commanded them, this one was against his will. Seconds after the sound came another surprise, it was the soft sound of thousands of raindrops hitting the earth, and never before had it rained under a cloud Hiten had created.

Hinata let a smirk lift her lips as she felt the rain fall on her skin, an elemental affinity to water didn't help if there wasn't enough water nearby, but now she had nature's endless supply. Keeping her grin she unzipped the giant sweater she wore, the sweater that served three purposes. The first was to hide her figure, something many shy girls did, the second was more for her ninja training, she had the sweater specially made to fit weights, and there was a lot of it, and finally there was a chakra repressing seal on the inside, by using it she managed to increase her chakra control exponentially, and now it was all free. Silently, she thanked Lee for the idea and tossed the sweater away. Hiten watched it with uninterested eyes until it hit the ground, sending a massive cloud of dust rising into the air.

Naruto felt his mouth touch the floor at the sight, he always had known the Hyuuga was strong, but that sweater had to be several hundred pounds. He was snapped out of his amazement by a firm hand on his own, it took a few more seconds to realize that it was Hinata.

"Follow my lead, Naruto kun," she said, before activating her bloodline trait. Naruto couldn't help but look her over, for the first time he saw her in a new light. With the giant jacket now gone, she was left wearing a simple form fitting black t-shirt with fishnet covering over it. Aside from the appearance he saw a whole new "face" to the Hyuuga. Ever since he had known her she was shy and timid, and that was still in her eyes, but pushed to the back of her mind, the only confidence she used to get was the occasional boost spurred by her friends. Yet, there was something different about this Hinata, she was beautiful, proud, and completely deadly. This wasn't the Hinata that borrowed strength from her friends and got back up, this was a new Hinata that could lend her strength to the world and still have the bravery of a lion.

Naruto liked it.

The next movement was a blur to his senses, even in sage mode he wasn't capable of traveling this fast, but before he could think any further he found himself face to face with Hiten. Using the momentum from the Hyuuga's burst of speed he slammed his fist into the demon's face, feeling the bones cave in. Quickly, he spun Hinata in a circle, still connected to his hand, while she delivered a devastating Juuken strike that Naruto felt resonate through the ground. It was so powerful in fact that the entire left half of the Thunder Brother went missing, it wasn't blown apart or gored, it was just gone.

Hiten had no time to counter before he felt a blow against the back of his head, followed by one to his stomach, then the head, then the leg, and eventually he lost all track of where the blows rained in from or which of the shinobi delivered it. He couldn't even see them except for the brief flashes of orange that crossed his vision, which was rapidly fading. Even the jewel couldn't keep up with the rate he was taking injuries all he could do now was hope that they tire without discovering where the real shard was hidden within his skin. That seemed unlikely, judging by the fact that every other hit removed yet another section of his body, disintegrated by the microscopically fine chakra blasts of Hinata's Juuken.

Suddenly, the rain of blows stopped and Hiten was left barely standing with the few mangled body parts he still contained. He looked around for his targets, finding them several feet away.

"Rasengan," said Hinata, and instantly Naruto removed his hand from hers and created two shadow clones. Together with Hinata the ball of energy was formed, except this time the Hyuuga forced all of the water based chakra she could muster into the attack as well as Naruto's own wind chakra. Hiten instantly knew he needed to beat the attack to completion, if he couldn't heal before they released that power he was as good as dead.

Suddenly, Naruto felt another chakra enter the Rasengan, it was a great, spasmodic chakra that hummed and vibrated through his arm. He turned to see none other than the grim face of a now conscious Sasuke, holding his hand out to the ever growing ball of energy that was now a very large attack with the same shuriken like wind blades, except with a vortex of water flying around it and electrical current running through it. Then Naruto broke his gaze towards Hiten, whose wounds were almost fully healed.

"We're not going to make it!" he said.

"Yes you are!" shouted InuYasha, before charging past. He wielded no other weapon but his claws, but made great use of them as he fired of his Iron Reaver. The following blast of yellow energy cut through Hiten's body, slowing the regeneration process even further, but before he could get in another shot he was blasted by a bolt of lightning that sprung from the broken blade of the Thunder Lance. It contained enough voltage to send the half demon shooting through the air a few feet before landing not so comfortably on his face.

Quickly, Hiten began regenerating once more, but the ball of chakra was not yet ready. They were going to need to have another distraction, and this time it came in the form of Kagome, who fired a purifying arrow deep into Hiten's heart. The skin around the arrow instantly burned away as the priestess powers did their job.

Despite the injury, Hiten managed to stand up and was already clumsily running toward the group of shinobi.

"This is for father!" yelled a very familiar voice, and in a flash of movement Shippou was charging Hiten, with a kunai in his outstretched hand. It had a strong blue flame wrapped around it and instantly Naruto remembered it as the kunai he had left by the fox demon's corpse.

The tiny knife cut along Hiten's chest, spreading the blue flames all around his body. Eventually the fire took the form of a large fox, and using its front paws the flames knocked Hiten to the ground, causing him to kneel.

Finally, the attack was finished charging. Naruto felt it get to the point where he could no longer control the spiraling ball of energy, even if he could pack more power into it, sensing this, the others instantly stopped adding their chakra, quickly feeling a wave of exhaustion flow through them. However, there was till one aspect of Hinata's plan left, and god dammit she wasn't going to shy out this time.

Fighting through her exhaustion, she leaned over to Naruto's face and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. Instantly, Naruto's face began to burn a shade of pink that would have made the old Hinata's blushes look pale. Strangely, the Rasengan also took this vibrant shade, but before he could say anything the Hyuuga fell to the ground, out cold from chakra exhaustion.

Quickly Naruto snapped out of it, he wouldn't be able to keep the attack steady much longer, and through his blush he let out a savage war cry, which lost much of the intimidating effect.

The attack collided with Hiten's chest, and for a brief moment absolutely nothing happened. Naruto suddenly felt himself panicking, he couldn't have messed up at this crucial moment. Suddenly, his worries were cut short in a blast of blinding white light.

0o0o0o0o0

Naruto felt very light, as if he were floating lazily down a river, but there was also a feeling of warmth to it, and when he looked around he saw nothing but blue skies and white clouds with no land in sight.

"Oh no, did that attack kill me?!" shouted the blond, quickly searching himself for any tell tale signs he was dead. There were no wings or a halo, but he did notice that all of his fox like features were gone, even the strange whisker marks he had grown up with his whole life. Suddenly there was a very playful laugh, which startled the shinobi, he looked around again to see where it was coming from.

"No, you're not dead yet," said the voice again, it was coming from directly in front of him. He quickly turned his head to set eyes upon a large fox, but nowhere near Kyuubi's size. It was roughly the size of a horse with large, orange eyes that held a tint of mischief in them.

"I am greatly in your debt, Naruto Uzumaki," he said, before bowing his large head. "Thank you, for helping my son avenge my death and allowing me safe passage into the afterlife,"

"Then you must be Shippou's father!" exclaimed Naruto, surprised to be talking to a ghost.

"Yes," he said simply. "But I owe you a debt of gratitude, so I will grant you two gifts," he said in a kind tone. "The first of which is a temporary solution, but will help you greatly for a few weeks,"

"What could that be?" asked Naruto, who received a grin from the large fox in front of him.

"If you hadn't have interrupted me, you would already know," he stated. "But nonetheless, it's a gift of great importance. While my soul must pass into the afterlife, but I can grant you a small portion of my power, to keep my brother that resides within you dormant for a while,"

"You mean you can stop Kyuubi?" asked Naruto, clear bewilderment in his eyes.

"Yes, but it is only temporary," said the fox demon. "It will last for exactly three weeks, in that time I want you to go visit a very old demon who lives in a land to the east. He is the oldest demon on the planet, and only appears to the mortal world when one is in great need. If you travel to the Ishi Oka and wait there until midnight he may find you worthy of his help,"

"Okay, and the second gift is?" asked Naruto, then he noticed a glint in the demon's eyes.

"Spirits parting from the living to the dead have the ability to visit briefly between worlds, and while you are not yet dead it is in fact your spirit that is here," the Demon gave Naruto a few seconds to see if he could figure it out on his own, but sighed when he looked at him with confused eyes.

"Would you like to see your friends from your world?" asked the fox, instantly Naruto's eyes lit up.

"Yes, take me to…" Naruto spent a few seconds thinking about who he should visit. "Take me to Sakura," he finally said.

"As you wish," said the demon, and suddenly the area around him turned completely black.

0o0o0o0o0

Sakura sighed for perhaps the hundredth time as she looked at the portrait on her dresser, it was the Genin picture of her, Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi. The former two had been gone for nearly a week now and things were not looking good for the search party. There was not one clue on where they went, it was almost as if they vanished from the face of the planet.

"You're not far off there," said a very familiar voice from behind her, instantly she spun around and found herself staring at a blue flame image of Naruto and a large fox.

"Naruto?" she asked, far to bewildered to say anything else. Suddenly what she saw hit her, she was looking upon a ghost. "You can't be… dead!" she shouted, already feeling tears pull at her eyes.

"Whoa, wait Sakura!" he shouted. "I'm not dead, just not really here… in a manner of speaking," The pink haired Kunoichi stopped her sobs still born and looked at the fire Naruto with curiosity.

"Then is this a dream?" she asked, but threw the thought away when there were no clothes-less men around.

"Not at all," said Naruto. "I just want you to know that we're all safe, Sasuke, Hinata, and me," he said. "I can't explain everything, because there isn't a lot of time I can be here, but I promise I'll come back as soon as I can," with that Sakura felt a great relief fall upon her, Naruto had never broken a promise.

"How long will you be?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," said Naruto sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "It could be anywhere between two weeks to two years, I really can't say,"

"We're running out of time, Naruto," said the large fox next to him, Naruto replied by nodding, then turned his attention to Sakura.

"Tell everyone not to worry about us, we'll be back as soon as we can. Dattebayo!" he said, before the flame slowly died away. For a moment, Sakura felt scared as the image faded, but allowed her lips to curl into a content smile.

"I've waited longer than two years for him before," she said, then for the first time in a week fell into an undisturbed sleep.

0o0o0o0o0

"He's waking up!" shouted Hinata, who sat next to the now stirring form of Naruto. The blond Shinobi's eyes flickered a few times before they finally opened, exposing a wooden ceiling.

"Where am I?" was the first thing he asked, slowly he forced himself into a sitting position, but quickly found that he hurt in every corner of his body.

"We're in the village, they're treating us as heroes for destroying the demon that threatened their homes," said Sasuke.

"I take it you didn't tell them he was after us in the first place?" replied Naruto, receiving a genuine smile from the Uchiha. "I thought so,"

"So, what happened?" asked Naruto. "I can't remember what happened on that last attack," instantly all eyes lit up, even though InuYasha fought to give an unimpressed expression.

"It was amazing Naruto kun!" exclaimed Hinata. "It was all like WOOSH then BOOM then-"

"We get it," said Sasuke. "But for a better idea, why don't we take Naruto to the battlefield?"

"You'll have to help me up," he said, instantly he felt himself being pulled off of the ground, he looked to his right and saw that it was Hinata, carrying him bridal style. His face quickly began to turn red, though not at the intensity it did during the fight, and he was about to protest when Hinata did something very unexpected.

"Naruto, do you have a fever?" she asked, before adjusting her hands slightly to touch his forehead. At that moment he was blasted with a wave of realization on what really was going on with Hinata on every occasion he did this. Instantly his face glowed even brighter.

"I-I'm fine, H-Hinata-sama," he stuttered, before quietly tapping his index fingers together. Hinata fought with all of her might to avoid laughing, she even had to bite down on her lips to prevent it from happening.

"C'mon," she finally managed to say, though it sounded more like a chuckle. "Let's show you what you did,"

_-_-_

"Where are we now, Hinata?" asked Naruto, who looked over a cliff, he hadn't remembered this being here before, but the view was beautiful. In the little valley was a sea a mile across of grass, and every here and there was a shining river of glass. Upon closer inspection he saw that if you focused on the whole thing it created a spiral of blue glass that extended the entire length of the hole.

"Don't you recognize it," said Hinata, playfully. "This is the crater you're attack created," and suddenly, Naruto realized he wasn't looking at a mile wide valley, but the aftermath of a powerful explosion.

"How long have I been asleep, there's already grass growing in it?!" he shouted, suddenly afraid of how much time had passed

'Shit, Time!" he thought, but knew he wouldn't be going anywhere for at least two days.

"Don't worry, you were asleep for one night," said Kagome, who just now was catching up to the faster group of shinobi. "The grass suddenly began growing as soon as Hiten's thundercloud vanished,"

"I never thought the aftermath of an explosion could be so beautiful!" said Naruto, looking over the crater one last time. (Somewhere far away, Diedara cries tears of joy in his grave)

"It may be beautiful," said Sasuke. "But that explosion almost killed us," he said, vividly remembering the attempt to outrun the blast.

"Sorry about that, but it's partially your fault Sasuke, after all you added your lightning chakra," as he said that he received a rather bloodthirsty glare from his moody friend.

"It is pretty impressive," admitted a rather pride-hurt InuYasha. The compliment took most off guard, with the only one who wasn't affected being Sasuke.

"InuYasha, are you feeling okay?" asked Kagome, placing her hand on his forehead.

"Hey! I'm feeling just fine!" he shouted. "Is it wrong when I compliment others?!"

"No," replied Kagome. "It's just never happened before," the half demon was about to protest when he realized that Kagome was probably right. At his expense the group of six enjoyed a few moments of mirthful laughter, which unfortunately sent horrible pain through Naruto's ribs.

"So, what happened to the jewel shard that Hiten had?" asked Naruto as he got over the burning pain in his chest. Quickly Kagome shot a look that could only be described as "oh ya!" Quickly, she reached in her shirt and produced a small glass container attached to a necklace. Inside was a small chunk of the Shikon jewel.

"Your attack blew it away, we spent three hours trying to find it!" she said while twirling the little glass vial.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said InuYasha.

"Do what?" asked Kagome, as the lid to the bottle flew open and the jewel shard went flying in the air.

"Gah! Find it before some other demon does!" shouted InuYasha, who jumped in the air after it. Sasuke sighed and walked away to go help the two look for the jewel, he was shortly followed by Shippou. Leaving only Naruto and Hinata standing at the edge of the crater.

"I want to show you something," she said, but waited for Naruto's response before she went jumping down the side of the cliff, and despite falling several hundred feet they landed rather gracefully among the grass of the artificial valley. Then she began walking forward, carrying Naruto the whole time, the scenery was beautiful as the crossed the rivers of glass, and the blades of grass swaying in the breeze. They continued walking for at least ten minutes before they came across what Hinata wanted to show him. The very center of the valley. The river of glass that spiraled its way around the crater met in a large circle, showing that it was in fact the middle. Looking in either direction all you could see was grass and the cliff sides that marked the end of the scenery.

Gently, Hinata let Naruto down, but kept supporting him with her shoulder. He looked out to all sides and taking in all of the scenery. Then his gaze stopped at the woman next to him, and for the first time he had seen in the last few days she was blushing.

"What's up, Hinata?" asked Naruto, turning to meet her gaze. Suddenly, almost trancelike she moved forward and hugged him.

"Naruto-kun," she said softly, suddenly feeling her shy nature resurface, she began wondering why she was doing this. Then she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her body, she looked up to see Naruto returning her embrace, and knew that she would never get a chance like this again.

Silently, without even muttering a word she stood up on her toes to match her crush's height and delivered a passionate kiss on his lips. At that very moment, a particularly strong gust of wind flew by, sending the grass waving all around them. They remained locked in that position for half a minute before there was a strange chipping sound next to them. Reluctantly, they broke their kiss and turned to look at what had fallen.

Standing straight up in the very center of the ring of glass was the small pink shard of the Shikon Jewel. Then the couple began to laugh.

* * *

And the fight comes to a close! The good guys won, the bad guy got vaporized by a Rasengan I can only describe as overkill, and the blond Shinobi falls in love with the Hyuuga princess. Now all that's left is for me to plan out the next "arc" if you will. So beyond that, please, read and review, just because you did it once doesn't mean you can stop! I want to hear from you guys (and wrack up the number of reviews I have)


	9. Chapter 9: Back on the Road

I suppose now would be a good time to mention I don't know much about the geography in the InuYasha series. So, besides Sesshomaru being the Daiyokai (for lack of an English translation) of the West I have no idea which demons reside where. So in general I'm going to pull directions out of my ass.

Also, this chapter was painful to write as I suffered with writers block from the last update to this one. That is the reason it is short, and why it may be sloppily put together (compared to the rest of the chapters)

Chapter Nine: Back on the Road.

"I'm truly sorry about the Tetsusaiga, Master InuYasha," said Myoga, deep in thought.

"It's okay, it wasn't your fault," replied InuYasha, sounding anything but kind. "Besides, if this Totosai person can fix it there's really no problem,"

"That's true," said Myoga. "But I am far more worried by Master Naruto's predicament,"

"Wait, since when is he _Master_Naruto?" Retorted InuYasha, picking the flea up by his head.

"Well, urm… Never mind that now!" shouted Myoga. "We should leave for the Ishi Oka quickly, already we waste valuable time that could be used keeping our world safe!"

"Big deal, Naruto has a demon inside of him, I still think we should head to the forge and get Tetsusaiga fixed first," replied InuYasha.

"You don't understand Master InuYasha!" replied the flea. "The Kyuubi sealed inside of Naruto is much too powerful to simply ignore! We need to keep it from resurfacing or else we may all be killed!"

"How powerful could this demon be?" asked InuYasha, with a look of utter carelessness.

"This is not the time for your stubbornness!" shouted Myoga, in a tone the half demon had never heard from him before. The small flea demon actually managed to surprise him with it. For a few seconds the half demon contemplated retaliating with another blast of sarcasm, but the flea's tone told him that something was more important than he was catching.

"Alright, so what's the real problem with the Kyuubi then?" he asked, willing to at least hear Myoga's story.

"Like most of the stories I tell, it goes back to your father," started the flea, already beginning to lose InuYasha's interest. "When the Great Dog Demon was still just beginning his life there was an order of nine great demons that protected this world, they were called the Order of Tails, as each of the demon's tails represented the power they held. Your father admired the group throughout his years and was motivated by them to become more powerful, so that he may one day join their ranks. He was young then, just a little more than a pup, and didn't see the evil ways of his nine idols,"

"So, what happened?" asked InuYasha.

"Well, as the years went by the Order of Tails eventually recognized your father's strength, and while he wasn't given the title of tailed beast he was easily as powerful as the four tails, who was also a Dog Demon, and your grandfather," said Myoga quietly

"Wait, my grandfather?" asked InuYasha. "I didn't know I even had one, from what I've heard about my father I just assumed that my only family was him, my mother, and my brother,"

"That isn't the case," said Myoga. "While no one knows any information on your grandmother, your grandfather was a very powerful, but unjust demon," said Myoga. "He was in every way the opposite of your father, who at the time was too young and ignorant to see that. Blindly, he followed your grandfather, doing whatever he asked of him, whether it was a simple task or the slaughtering of an entire village,"

"Wait, did father actually do that?" asked InuYasha, who had always been told his father was a great friend to humans.

"Yes, and on every occasion he did so without question, soon becoming a messenger of death that the Order sent to villages that angered them, but it wasn't until a few years later that your father gained his love for humans, and in the oddest of ways," said Myoga. "On one of his trips to a human village he stumbled across an elderly woman, at the time he was in his human form so she didn't recognize him as the demon he was. While your father was very compliant on his orders, no one told him that he couldn't converse with the humans he passed, it was his childish curiosity of the human that lead him down his path. As I mentioned before she was a very elderly woman, and she was pulling behind her a heavy wheel barrel full of grain. While he didn't understand the concept of aging among humans, he did notice that she seemed to have a hard time with the wheel barrel, and seeing this he offered to help her bring the grain to her house. In gratitude she invited your father in for a drink that humans called tea, and it was perhaps that act that changed your father into the great demon he was,"

"How would a cup of tea affect my father like that?" asked InuYasha.

"It wasn't the tea, but more of the idea behind it," replied Myoga. "For his entire life, your father had done nothing but hard work for the Order with not as much as thanks in return. In a strange way he was almost a willing slave to them, to blinded by his ignorance to see that they were just using him. However, for the first time in his life your father knew gratitude when the old woman shared tea with him, and for the first time your father also knew what it felt like to be rewarded. Whether it was his kind spirit or the dog instinct within him, he felt indebted to the woman for her kindness, so in return he didn't destroy the village,"

"I take it that didn't set well with the Order," said InuYasha smugly.

"Not in the least, in fact the Order was so angered that your father was sent to the Eight Tailed beast to receive his punishment. This particular beast was infamous for his brutal torture methods and cruelty, but it was this that finally shook your father's loyalty. After that he continued his orders as given, but the entire time began feeling a new form of hurt as he destroyed the villages of humans who could be so kind. Until his allegiance was altered by a single human girl. She was a human of about five years of age and had no family, after your father destroyed her village she was the last one alive, and he was about to kill her to before he stopped,"

"He stopped?" asked InuYasha.

"Yes, but the master was very secretive about this aspect of his life. I never actually learned his reasoning for letting the girl live, but I do know that he never went back to the Order after that. At first, they were furious, but did nothing. Your father was expendable to them and posed a threat only to the weaker members, members that the higher ups never got along well with, but it was this that led to their fall… Before your father left there was one of the Tailed Beasts that held a firm affection towards him, ironically it was the Two Tailed Cat demon that sympathized with him. Now, the cat, while low in the rank of tails, was powerful in something else, she held the power over all the natural functions of the world, from life to the weather. She also detested the ways of the Order and sought to end their hold over the kingdoms of man. Secretly, she and the master began meeting and together came up with a plan to overthrow the Order,"

"So, what happened?" asked InuYasha, who was now hooked like a child being told a bed time story.

"Well, I'm not exactly sure… I took it to myself to take care of the master's home while he was gone," said Myoga with a shrug.

"So you ran away," said InuYasha, all of his former excitement gone.

"Well… yes, but in the end I know that your father won, he challenged the Kyuubi, the nine tails, to a one on one fight. The Kyuubi accepted the challenge with the stake being that whatever side won would become or remain the leader of the Order of Tails,"

"So, Father won the fight and then what," said InuYasha.

"Hahaha! You think your father actually beat the Kyuubi?!" laughed Myoga. "No, he was defeated, but your father already knew that he was outmatched, so he came with a backup plan. Put simply he cheated,"

"What?" asked InuYasha.

"You heard me right," said Myoga. "When it became obvious to the master that he couldn't defeat Kyuubi he called on the aid of the Two Tails, taken by surprise, the Kyuubi couldn't avoid the following attack and was turned back into a kit with his powers held dormant. While the rest of the Order of Tails felt no loyalty to the master he was the victor, and the fight stated that whoever won became the leader of the Order, even if it was an unfair victory. And by oaths they took to the Kyuubi long ago they would follow their leader unquestioning, as such the master had the two tails open a portal between this and the other world and ordered the tailed beast, minus the two tails, to go through,"

"Which is how they ended up in Naruto's world,"

"Precisely, and in a final act of pity he even allowed the kit form Kyuubi to live in that other world, though I'm sure he didn't know that there were humans there to, otherwise I doubt he would have purposely sent them there,"

"So, after that what happened to the two tails?" asked InuYasha.

"I'm also not sure of that, master was very secretive about her as well. However, in the end I believe she eventualy followed behind the others and went into that world as well," replied Myoga.

"Why would she do that, it's not like they would be happy to see her," muttered the half demon.

"Alas, I may never know the true story, but after a while all rumors of a giant cat demon vanished from the earth, until the cat tribe sprung up several years later but that's a different story, and that giant cat was definitely not the beautiful two tails I knew!" Myoga suddenly went silent for a few moments. "Perhaps we could ask master Naruto about the other demons, after all if the Kyuubi was sealed in a human then I wouldn't put that past some of the other demons either,"

"No, I don't think it would be a good idea to tell him about this," said InuYasha. "From what I know about him is that if he goes under intense emotional stress the Kyuubi's power slips through. I don't think he'd take the news that the nine greatest evils on his world are my father's fault,"

"You have a point, but I'd still like to know what happened to the Two Tails, she had blood tastier than any I've had before," sighed Myoga.

_-_-_

"A-Achoo!" sneezed Naruto, nearly knocking himself off the boulder he sat on. It had been a lazy day ever since the encounter with Hinata earlier, and even with only three weeks to get to the Ishi Oka before the Kyuubi would reawaken and take over his body he felt as if everything was going better than normal. However, being wracked with the sudden bouts of sneezing didn't help him much at all.

"It seems like someone's talking about you, Naruto kun," teased Hinata softly, startled, Naruto swung his head in the direction of her voice.

"C'mon, you don't actually believe that kind of stuff, do you?" said Naruto sarcastically, causing them both to burst out into laughter. It went on for several moments before Naruto fired off another sneeze, then their laughter just grew even louder.

It took a minute or two, but eventually their mirth died down and both were left with happy expression, silently, Hinata climbed up to the top of the boulder and sat herself next to Naruto. He hesitated a moment before deciding to put his arm around her shoulder, she welcomed the contact and gently leaned into Naruto's side noting his strong heart beat.

"You know," she said, with a slight blush. "I spent most of my time daydreaming about moments like these," she told him. "But none of them even came close to the real thing," Naruto didn't respond with words, he simply held her tighter and smiled, in a way it said more than a thousand words, and out of those one thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine were beautiful words of encouragement. One, however, seemed like Naruto's mind wasn't on the present, it almost seemed like he was worried. Hinata let it go, thinking that she was just imagining things, but in truth the blond was conflicted.

'What would happen to Hinata if the Kyuubi ever got loose?' he silently pondered. 'Could I hold myself back enough to save her, is there a way to keep her safe?' he let the ponderings die away as he heard another voice from behind him.

"Naruto! C'mon, we're leaving!" it was Kagome's voice, but it appeared like Hinata didn't hear it.

"Let's go," said Naruto. "I think Kagome's calling us,"

"Really, I don't hear anything," said Hinata, but then realized that Naruto's hearing was a lot more sensitive in his form. "Alright, let's go," she said, reluctantly prying herself from the blond's arms.

"Wait, that won't do," said Naruto with a shake of his head. "I can't be letting someone as pretty as you walk all the way back," and with that he lifted Hinata from the ground, startled she released a high pitched squeak before she found herself in Naruto's arms, bridal style. Quickly she found herself relaxing and allowing Naruto to carry her towards the village.

The ride was shorter than she would have liked, and the village came into view within the minute with Naruto's tree hopping skills. Waiting for them there was the rest of the group, all ready to head out. Naruto jumped to the head of the group and gently set Hinata on her feet before asking the question.

"What's going on?" everyone, including Hinata and excluding Sasuke, did an immediate face vault.

"We're about to leave you idiot," said InuYasha from his hole in the ground, suddenly he was joined by Myoga, who hopped onto his vulnerable form and began sucking blood from the half demon's neck.

"Ah! Well," said the flea. "We are in luck, Totosai's forge is only a day away from the Ishi Oka. So, we'll be traveling together until we reach the cross road, then Naruto will break off from the group and head on his way!"

"Wait, Naruto kun is going alone?" asked Hinata.

"Of course, it's one of the requirements of the Ishi Oka!" said Myoga. "If there's more than one person there, the demon will not appear," Hinata suddenly felt her spirits sink, the thought of being away from Naruto, even if only for a few days, was painful since they just got together.

"Don't worry, Hinata," said Naruto with his trademark grin. "I'll only be gone for two or three days, I promise I'll come back quickly,"

"Besides, we have an easy weeks worth of hiking before we get to the cross road," explained Myoga. With that Hinata's spirits lifted greatly, and she kept her peace on the matter.

"So, when do we leave?" asked the blond.

"Right now," said InuYasha, picking up Kagome, who let out a quick yell of surprise before they went running off down the trail. "You'll never catch up!" he shouted back to them.

"Oh ya!" replied Sasuke, relishing the chance to test his speed. In an instant he was gone, leaving a trail of dust behind him.

"Well, we should get going to," said Naruto, holding his hand out to Hinata, she gently nodded her head and placed her hand in his before they slowly began walking in the direction their companions took off in.

0o0o0o0o0

Naruto and Hinata eventually found the others resting around a roaring campfire. InuYasha had his back turned to the scene with Kagome sitting by him and Sasuke looked more smug than usual, Naruto was willing to bet on who won their race.

"What took you so long, dobe," said Sasuke.

"Oh, just enjoying the scenery," replied Naruto while rubbing the back of his head.

"Yes, I imagine you did," said the Uchiha, flashing an amused eye at the Hyuuga, immediately she began to blush.

"N-no, it was n-nothing like that!" she said, before hiding behind Naruto. "W-we just walked t-together, that's all,"

"Oh, would you two knock it off," said Kagome suddenly. "You're acting like children, besides, I'm sure Naruto was very nice," and though the intent behind the words were innocent enough, however the wording was just vague enough to make the situation that much worse. Even Sasuke fought back the urge to chuckle while Hinata's face produced more light than the campfire. Kagome, however, remained ignorant to the awkward tension and on a completely random whim exclaimed.

"I saw a hot spring down the road a bit, I don't know about you, but I need a bath!"

As she spoke the words there was a sudden realization among them that the camp smelled a little too homely, and instantly the entire group decided a nice hot bath would be good for them.

"Whoa!" shouted Kagome as Naruto stood up. "Ladies go first, the guys can go after!" sighing in defeat, Naruto placed himself back on the ground.

"C'mon, Hinata, let's go!" said Kagome, pulling the Hyuuga to her feet. "I bet the water's really warm!" smiling, Hinata began to walk away, after all a bath was an excellent idea.

"C'mon Shippou!" shouted Kagome as they walked down the road, happily the kit sprung onto her shoulder.

"Hey, he's a guy!" shouted InuYasha after them.

"Ya, but he's just a kid," retaliated Kagome. "There's a huge difference!"

"We'll be back soon!" said Hinata, actually finding herself enjoying teasing the men of the group, even if it did mean teasing Naruto.

_-_-_

"How disappointing, an entire cartload of spoils and the fetch but a small price," said the monk, bathing in the natural hot spring after a long days worth of honest working. The cart of valuable he had "earned" from the local lord fetched for little more than a handful of coins, the horses were more valuable than the gold even.

He sighed as he realized that he'd need to find work again soon, or else he may starve. So was the life of a wandering monk. Suddenly he heard a sound coming from the other side of the rocks.

"Oh ya!" exclaimed a woman. "Now this is what I call a hot spring! Right Hinata?"

"It's nice, but after you've been to the ones in our world others just don't seem the same," responded another, the talk of another world didn't surprise the monk as much as the fact that he had stumbled upon two women bathing in the springs next to them.

"Well, I think it's nice," said another person, it was just then that he noticed the young fox demon that stayed in the shallows. It wasn't often that you saw people acquainted to demons, but the monk didn't care, these two women were stunning.

"So Hinata," said one of them, looking curiously at the other. "I heard from Sasuke that you can control water, is that true?"

"Um, ya, but it drains my strength faster here," replied the other one, the monk sighed at her name, Hinata, it was so pretty.

"Could you show me something?" asked the other one, there was a brief pause before the other silently agreed. Instantly, the monk felt a river of blood flow from his nose as the girl actually hoisted her body ontop of the water, so that she was standing on the surface. (to keep this rated T just imagine small clouds of conveniently placed steam please!) But beyond the woman's feminine features, the monk for the first time noticed her eyes. They were pure grey without any sort of pupil, in a way they made her look even more beautiful, but he only cared about the eyes for a few moments before his gaze was drawn elsewhere.

"Byakugan," muttered Hinata, suddenly several thick veins formed near her eyes, a much less beautiful feature. However, the monk only got to see that for a brief moment, when the woman suddenly let out a loud shriek and fell back into the water.

"T-there's another guy over there!" she said, turning and pointing directly behind them, the monk didn't even stop to ponder how she noticed him when he was clearly out of her vision, but rather threw on his purple and black monk robes and was off before any of them had the chance to move. However, being the monk he was he couldn't help but take one final look at the two women and noticed a necklace hanging from one's neck, and in it was a small pink shard.

'Is that?' thought the monk. 'A shard of the sacred Jewel?!'

* * *

And thus I introduce Miroku… I'm still not sure how I'm going to fit in the group of Shinobi and the Inu group and give all of them their deserved "screen time." More importantly, how do you like the explanation of the Bijuu or Order of Tails as the Inu group will refer to them. Plus, this is going to be a very special occasion for the readers, I have my own plan concerning what happened to the two tails. However… I also want to let the readers interact with the story more, so I want you to post your ideas for what happened to her and if I like it more than my own idea (which is very good) I'll use it. Keep it rated T ^_^


	10. Chapter 10: Worse Than Trash

Chapter Ten: Worse Than Trash

"Damn!" cursed InuYasha as he narrowly jumped over the chakra enhanced kunai, it was yet another one of the training sessions he insisted on having with Naruto. Ever since the first match there was no contest between them, Naruto always got the finishing blow only moments into the fight, but InuYasha felt change in the air from that last dodge.

InuYasha, while hot headed and stubborn, realized full well how easily Hiten could have killed him at any moment. It was not something he wanted a repeat of, so shortly after the "hot spring incident" as they had called it for the last three days the half demon swallowed his pride and asked the shinobi for help in his training. Which translated to "Would you beat me half to death twice a day?"

Quickly, InuYasha struck out with the wooden training sword he was given, at least until Tetsusaiga was fixed, trying to counter the blond's failed swing. Making good use of his amplified hearing Naruto was able to dodge the blow before actually seeing it, in a way it was as much training for him as it was for InuYasha in that sense.

"You'll have to do better than that!" taunted Naruto, safely out of range from another swing from the sword, which was roughly the length of the transformed Tetsusaiga.

"Shut up!" retaliated the half demon, feeling his legs flex like springs. Using all of the power he could muster he launched himself from the spot, and instantly his face collided with a tree.

Naruto watched with a raised eyebrow as he noticed the subtle muscle movements in the other's body that was a dead giveaway that he was going to lunge, but struggled greatly to hold back the chuckle forming in his throat when InuYasha underestimated his own speed, a mistake even the most skilled shinobi have made at least once in their life. That didn't make it any less funny when InuYasha slowly peeled away from the bark, leaving a perfect indentation of his surprised face.

"You know, that mark will be there until the tree dies, generations from now will see your face like that imbedded into that tree," commented Naruto, receiving a savage death glare from the scuffed up half demon. "But, if you can learn to control that speed you would have a valuable weapon in the future," with that InuYasha's protest died as he realized exactly what he had accomplished, as Sasuke had shown him, speed could make all the difference in a fight.

"And with that you can take a break," said Kagome from the tree line, InuYasha looked at her, then to Naruto, and with one final "Humph" started to walk back towards the camp.

They were coming ever closer to the cross road that would mark the splitting of their journey and within four days they would be there, long within the time that Shippou's dad could hold the Kyuubi dormant. Today, according to Myoga, the group would be entering a steep canyon that would lead them into a small village that marked a rough half way point to their destination.

"Sasuke says it's about time we get going," said Kagome, interrupting Naruto's daydream. Quickly, the blond shook himself awake, giving the priestess a quick nod before following her back to the camp. When they arrived everything was already stowed away in the storage scrolls Sasuke carried with him. The Uchiha waited impatiently for his teammate, the practice sessions he had with InuYasha were costing them time, and while they had plenty to spare Sasuke knew hw easily things get off track while traveling the most unpredictable ninja. Of course, he was right…

_-_-_

"Wow!" shouted Naruto, hearing his echo answer back several times. "This place is amazing!" looking down from the canyon walls he could see a small river snaking its way through the dense sea of trees below.

"Ah yes," said Myoga. "I remember when InuYasha's father created this canyon, using Tetsusaiga's power he helped the local village so that they may pass through the mountain, rather than go around it,"

"Wow, is Tetsusaiga really that powerful?" asked Kagome.

"Of course, I bet Totosai will even teach Master InuYasha the attack that did this!"

Their chatter went on aimlessly, rotating through topics just to kill time, but their stalker couldn't care less about that, his focus was on the necklace that held the jewel shard. Quickly he ran ahead, remaining cloaked in the shadows until he was far ahead of the group, waiting on a high ledge by a bend in the road.

"This spot should do nicely," he said, placing the butt his staff into the ground. He let out a whistle that most would mistake as the call of a bird and instantly a raccoon demon poofed into existence beside him.

"You called, master?" asked the raccoon, who was a bit shorter than the man and wore the clothes of a nobleman.

"Yes, I have a mission for you," said the monk cheerfully.

"Oh great," sighed the raccoon. "What is it this time, do you want me to spy on some women, bring you back some underwear?"

"Yes," stated the monk. "But not right now, first I want you to help me retrieve a certain object from those travelers down there," he said, pointing to the group of people in the distance. "The woman in the strange clothing has a shard of the Shikon Jewel,"

"R-really?!" asked the raccoon demon. "So, you want me to get the jewel from the woman?"

"No," said the monk, before giving the raccoon a sharp blow to the head. "A woman like that would be scared to death if she was kidnapped by a demon."

"But it already appears like she's traveling with two half demons, and one full blooded fox demon,"

"That's not the point," replied the man.

"I get it, you want me to separate her from the rest of the group so you can get her," realized the raccoon.

"That's correct," the other stated.

"I still don't get why," said the demon. "Why go through all this trouble when you could use your powerful right hand and have the jewel in a matter of seconds!"

"Don't be a fool," replied the monk. "Surely you know better than that, if I use this hand then everyone in the vicinity would die,"

"How could I have forgotten, I hope you remember who your friends are, if this should somehow get out of control," said the demon, while putting a small leaf onto its forehead, it put its paws together, forming a hand sign.

"You can count on it, my friend," and with that the raccoon jumped off the cliff, before transforming in a blast of smoke. Instantly, he turned into a strange worm –like creature and barreled down the side of the cliff towards the unsuspecting group.

"I have come for ye!" he shouted, and it was about then when the attack managed to fail. Reacting instinctively, InuYasha jumped forward. His new speed still surprised him, but now that he was expecting it he controlled it to some degree. He placed his hands out and after sliding down the hill a few feet managed to stop the demon completely. Using a trick Naruto showed him he switched his balance to the right, using the force of the demon's push to throw him down the remainder of the cliff.

Immediately, all of the shinobi turned their eyes to the top of the cliff, Hinata already with her Byakugan activesaw only one figure hiding among the bushes. She gave a quick nod to Sasuke who removed two kunai from his sleeves, he quickly threw one after the other, allowing them to collide mid air and sending the first in a new direction, right towards the attacker. A quick shout of pain said the projectile hit its mark.

The monk sat on the top of the hill, cradling his freely bleeding left arm. The knife shaped projectile buried itself deep into his flesh and into the bone sending unbearable amounts of pain coursing through his body.

"How could a human have the skill to pull of a shot like that?" he muttered, preparing to remove the knife.

"Practice," said Sasuke, the monk felt his eyes grow wide, there was no one behind him just a second ago. He turned around quickly, aggravating his injured arm in the process. Then came face to face with the oddly clothed human companion of the group.

As a monk he was trained extensively on how to read emotions through the eyes, but this man had eyes so dark and lifeless that he couldn't receive the vaguest indication of intention. He realized that this was a person who would end his life and not even blink, but he had no intention of going peacefully.

"I take it you were after the Shikon shard?" asked Sasuke, standing in his usual cocky manner. Through his fear, the monk managed to force a smirk.

"Yes, that was my intention," he said, playfully. "So, do you plan on giving it up, or will I have to kill you?" for a split second, he saw a flash of amusement in the other's eyes, and only a split second after that he felt a pricking sensation at the base of his neck.

"That's impossible," said the monk, raising his chin to relieve the pressure of the knife. "No human can move that fast!"

"Actually, they can," said another person, the monk could turn his head just enough to make out the orange and black of one of the half demons, he sounded in no way amused. "Now, you've put us in a rather dangerous situation. If we let you go you could follow us and attack in our sleep, but we don't want to kill you,"

"Please," said the monk humbly. "I'm sure we can come to an understanding, if we just talk for a moment," while he couldn't see the others face, the monk could feel that the other was smiling.

"I like that plan," he said happily, completely erasing all traces of his former, serious nature. The monk suddenly realized that this is what he wanted the whole time.

"Now, is there a name we could call you?" he asked.

_-_-_

"I to am in search of the shards of the Shikon jewel," explained Miroku later that day, the group had come to the small village Myoga described and it was almost nightfall. "My purpose is to find and eliminate a demon, a terrible demon that goes by the name of Naraku,"

"Naraku?" echoed Kagome.

"Yes, and it was this same demon who left me with a cursed hole in my right hand that sucks up everything in its path,"

"What sort of demon is this thing?" asked Hinata, who cradled Shippou in her arms.

"I know little of him, except that he is very wicked, and is said to… devour people. According to father, my grandfather battled Naraku long ago, in his youth. It was over fifty years ago, their battle ensued for several years and each time Naraku appeared before my grandfather he took on the form of a different human. They say that the last time that he appeared before my grandfather he took the form of a beautiful woman. My grandfather had great spiritual powers, but unfortunately, as fate would have it he had a certain weakness,"

Kagome was about to ask a further question, until she felt something on her bottom, instantly her question was answered and more as she realized where the monk placed his hands. InuYasha quickly punched him on the top of his head and separated the two.

"So he was a pervert too?" he asked, angrily.

"Remarkable intuition," replied Miroku, rubbing the bump on his head. "Naraku pierced my grandfather's right hand with his sacred religious seals and managed to escape. Now all of his descendants are cursed to bear this hand, and each year the whole in my hand grows bigger and the wind ever more powerful. Unless I can defeat Naraku, I myself will eventually be devoured by the hole,"

"In other words, it will kill you," stated Naruto, deep in thought.

"Yes, but I'm prepared to accept that fate, if such is truly my destiny, but until then I won't stop trying to kill Naraku, and to do that I need the shards of the Shikon jewel, knowing Naraku he is certain to try and gather the shards to strengthen his own malicious power, I'm sure of it. I know because he once came close to getting the jewel fifty years ago when he slew the priestess that protected it," suddenly, InuYasha's eyes grew wide and he quickly stood up.

"You say he killed a priestess?" he asked quickly, not bothering to hide his shock. 'then he must be the demon that disguised himself as me and struck down Kikyo!'

"You say this Naraku takes all kinds of different forms," said InuYasha, before grabbing the monk by the collar. "What about now, what does he look like now?!"

"Calm down, if I had that information I would have slain him long ago myself," said Miroku. InuYasha stood with his claws twitching with rage, whatever connection he had with Naraku it wasn't a pleasant one.

"So," said Kagome, pulling the necklace that contained the jewel fragment. "If we continue to search for these shards we're sure to run into him eventually!"

"How'd you get that back?" asked Miroku, who was ignored.

"Let's search for the shards together, unless you plan on giving up, InuYasha," she teased.

"I'll never give up!" retaliated the half demon.

"Then it settled," said Shippou. "Miroku can come with us!"

"Well, I've always been more of a solitary man, I prefer to work on my own than in the company of others," replied Miroku.

"Ya, but if we don't act fast than you won't even have your own company to enjoy (not sexual at all-_-)"

"There's always more room on the team," said Naruto with a smirk. "Together we'll change your destiny, and defeat Naraku!"

"And hopefully get home in the process," Sasuke added, feeling that Naruto was getting a little sidetracked.

"Speaking of which," said Miroku. "Where are you from? I've never seen humans or half demons with the abilities you have."

"Um, it's kinda a long story," said Hinata.

"So we'll just have to tell it on the road!" shouted Naruto excitedly. "Let's get going!" he then began marching towards the sunset happily, completely oblivious to the fact no one was following.

"Should we tell him that we're camping here tonight?" asked Shippou.

"No," replied Sasuke, InuYasha, and Miroku simultaneously.

0o0o0o0o0

"Kakashi-sensei?!" shouted Sakura, looking among the training field for her former teacher. She had looked around everywhere for him, but ever since she told him the news about Naruto he was gone more often than usual. She knew right away something was troubling him, but couldn't place her finger on it. Logically it had something to do with Naruto's disappearance, but it only happened after she mentioned that he seemed like he was in another world.

'Why would Kakashi be so worried about that?' she wondered, it made sense to be a little worried for the blond, but he made a promise. Kakashi knew just as well as her nothing would get in the way of one of his promises, he'd even conquer death for it.

_-_-_

"Y'know she'll figure it out eventually, Kakashi-san," said the person from within the cell. "You know that even better than I do, and if it weren't so ludicrous she would already have the answer,"

"I know, but you heard what she said, the only possibility is that he's… there," replied the silver haired Jonin, more serious than he'd been in a long time. "As far as we knew there was only two ways there, but it appears that there is another, at the Sacred Tree Hot Spring,"

"Ah, that's ironic," said the person in the shadows. "If I'm not mistaken that's what it's called over there as well… minus the hot spring part,"

"It is, and this is what we found the day they disappeared," silently, Kakashi passed a long object wrapped in cloth to the other side of the gate.

"This is just an arrow," replied the other. "What's so important about it?"

"Look at the feathers at the bottom and you'd already know," said Kakashi, there was a short pause before the other's voice, more silently answered.

"I see… Then this is the key," the other muttered. "Well, that's great, but you've forgotten one thing. This cell. I have committed crimes worthy of my life in this hole, even if it wasn't this me it was these hands. Hundreds died thanks to me, it was almost thousands. If it weren't for those two the peace negotiations now would have never come to be, in fact all involved would have been killed,"

"And you're forgetting one thing yourself," said Kakashi angrily. "If there was ever one thing I learned from you it was on that day, think, what would you do in my shoes?"

"Heh, I never expected those words to have such an impact on you. After all, it was those words that killed me," said the other.

"Yes, but it was also those words that saved her, if we were given the choice again I know you'd do it over. So, are you with me?" asked Kakashi, placing his hand through the heavy metal bars,"

"Those break the rules are trash…" said the prisoner, grasping the other's hand firmly.

"But those who abandon their friends are even worse than trash," said Kakashi, giving his famous eye smile. "Now, let's go and help our friends. Obito,"

"I actually prefer Tobi," said the prisoner, bringing his face into the light. The Uchiha's spiky black hair had grown long from his days in prison, but the determination in his eyes was the same as it was on that mission so many years ago.

"Now, let's get you out of this cell," said Kakashi, holding up a glowing white dagger.

* * *

What a twist!!! Don't worry if your brains are frying, all of this will be explained soonly. What you should really be wondering is why these chapters keep getting shorter, to which I respond... I'm running out of ideas. Most of my talent lies in the ability to write fight scenes, but these in-between fights are always difficult for me to write. Unless I added copious amounts of filler information during the Miroku part (which would have been very long descriptions of things like bushes) what more could I add to this? (O hai Miroku... LET'S GO ON AN ADVENTURE NOW! and just make up some random thing for them to do?) It would just be a little to quick for my tastes.

Also, there was a distinct lack of reviews when I wrote the last chapter... No one even responded to the "Challenge." "That is neither proper nor suitable, it is not acceptable nor adequate, it is, an obvious fact, an abomination!" (Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End) please people, review!!! I wish to hear from you, and even if you've done it once DO IT AGAIN! As a writer I don't do this for the fame, glory, or knowledge that I'm making the world a more literate place... I do it for fame, glory, and the comments that make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Now review or I'll send my army of mutant shovel creatures to overthrow the free world and force every last one of you to write ten daily! (and maybe give free health care)

Thanks for reading ^.^


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